


How To Disappear

by blondesonblacksand



Category: Black Widow (Comics), Black Widow (Movie 2020), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Compulsory Heterosexuality, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Lesbian Character, Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Minor Original Character(s), Minor Violence, Natasha Romanov Needs a Hug, Original Character Death(s), POV First Person, POV Original Female Character, Plot Twists, Rivalry, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:09:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29133828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blondesonblacksand/pseuds/blondesonblacksand
Summary: It’s down to a team of five SHIELD agents to save the world from a mysterious threat. However, as the problems multiply and the stakes get higher, Julie finds herself struggling with personal issues that effect the job.
Relationships: Natasha Romanov (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s), Natasha Romanov (Marvel)/Reader
Comments: 45
Kudos: 46





	1. first big-girl mission

The helicopter was dark. It’s not like I expected it to be all Disney-Park-ride colorful-and-bright, but a little splash of colors would’ve been nice here and there. At the least, it would have been helpful. My eyes strained a little to read the words in the label on my parachute, but I persisted in my attempt to read it. It was probably a bad idea to not read what’s written on the side of the only thing stopping me from smacking into the ground from 1000 feet up. 

Eventually, I managed to work out the words “CAUTION: PROPER TRAINING REQUIRED BEFORE USE.” This was followed by lines of thinner text, which I didn’t bother reading. I had trained, and trained again, and trained again on pretty much everything I would need to be able to do. I had been imagining (and, admittedly, romanticizing) this moment for years. Still, I wasn’t prepared at all. 

They don’t exactly have a class for you to take about your first Big-Girl Mission. You read all the book and you complete all of the physical training, but at the end of the day, you still end up just another nervous agent, ready to hop into the sky. Well, not really ready. But still, there was only a few minutes until my deployment, so I was about as ready as I would ever be. 

It was pretty obvious I was the new guy. Everyone else’s uniforms were a little more creased, their boots a little more scuffed, and their attitude a little broodier. I hated the way I stuck out so easily. Blending had been a skill of mine for as long as I could remember, and the blatant inability to do so made me immensely uncomfortable. I became aware that I was bouncing my knee subconsciously, and I immediately stopped. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed one of the guys was staring at me. There was thick, awkward silence. Awesome. Cool. 

“What’s your name again?” he asked, and and I shifted to face him. When I was spoken to, I always responded by looking in the eye. Good habit to get into. Intimidates people. 

“Moore. Julie,” I responded, monitoring my tone to make sure it didn’t betray me. One quiver in my voice and boom, I was the scared little girl. 

He scoffed in return. “Gomez. Antonio,” he mocked, and I smiled tightly in response. At least someone talked to me. A slight tilt in his voice revealed he was from New York, a place I was familiar with. 

“Everyone, attention,” a serious tone announced from the front. I rose, my heart fluttering and my stomach tightening. This was it. “Do we need a recap of the job today?”

We all shook our heads simultaneously, quiet. Mentally, I ticked over my job today. It was very straightforward: land on the ground, find the storage room, grab as much as possible. There were research documents that needed to be destroyed. I didn’t know what they were, didn’t ask. Casualties were permitted, but unnecessary, so I resolved to try and keep fatalities at a minimum if possible. 

The helicopter hissed as it opened, and when I peaked outside, we were not as elevated as I expected. A couple hundred feet, but still. I had double checked the security of the parachute around me a thousand times, but I checked it again. Everything was running smoothly. There were about four guys ready to jump, and I joined them. The most eager three went first, and, resolving against going last, I lined up to take my turn. 

The jump wasn’t the scariest part. The worst of it was the ground. If I didn’t stick the landing, I could twist my ankle, and then I would be completely reliant on someone else to save me. Plus, so embarrassing. Thankfully, I reached the ground without a hitch, just like I knew I could. I didn’t run to catch up. I walked swiftly. The difference was an element of grace, which I always strived to have. As I caught up, I overheard some light gossip. 

“You really think the helicopter drop off was necessary? I mean, couldn’t we have, like, driven here?”

“The file said there was a security gate surrounding all roads leading to this place a mile out, and all the gates were taped so we couldn’t break it. Please tell me you read the file.”

“I gave it a skim.”

“A skim? It also said—“

“That’s enough. Time to focus,” a deep voice boomed over the chatter. Conversation halted, and all eyes turned to who I could only assume was our leader of the day. “Ok. Let’s move together. You two, perimeter and watchout. One in front, one behind. Wherever we go, make sure no one follows.” He turned to me and the man standing next to me. “And you two, you’re going through the files. If it looks important, burn it or take it.” He tossed the other person a different bag, which they caught with ease. Less than a moment later, it was slung over their shoulder. “If you’re not sure what to do with it, throw it in the bag. The more the merrier.” He turned back to face all of us. “Got it?”

We all nodded briskly, and we were off. I drew my gun. It was loaded, safety off. My job wasn’t to fight at the moment, but I felt safer with it in hand. 

POP! My head shot over to where the sound had come from, and to my horror, it was not from one of ours. We were being fired at. I swallowed my panic, remaining composed. Stay cool. You’ve trained for this. My teammates fired back, but for some reason, I didn’t feel any safer. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t even know their names. 

“Move! Faster!” the man in charge ordered ferociously, and we broke into a sprint, still maintaining at least something of our formation. I was in the center side-by-side with the person carrying the duffel bag, with someone a few feet in front of and behind us, and the man that had been ordering us around directly behind me. 

“AGH!” screamed the man in front of me, writhing in agony. It didn’t take a genius to tell he had been shot, and based on where he was gripping, it was on his shoulder. Ouch. He stumbled along with us, mostly still keeping up and shifting his grip of his gun to his other hand, now just for his own protection. My gun was already out, so I didn’t worry about my front not being secure. Selfishly, I was thankful they didn’t hit the man behind me. That would’ve been an issue. 

We rounded a corner, having lost pretty much all semblance of our original plan. We weren’t being fired at any more, at least not for the moment. “There!” cried the man from behind. “That door, it says ‘Lab 4!’ We’re close, in the lab area!”

“No, idiot, that means we’re a floor up. The labs are above storage. Storage is bottom floor,” groaned the other gunman. “Stairwells are at the end of the hallway. I think this one. Let’s go.”

We picked back up our sprint, now with a clear path of where we were going. Descending stairs was easy, but as we reached the bottom, the echoing of a shifting door resounded across the walls. We were being followed. 

One of the men swore under his breath, exasperated. We quickly ran through the halls of the bottom floor, but surely they knew where we were headed by now. There was no good end to this. 

Finally, the glorious words “STORAGE - DO NOT ENTER” were visible on the label of one of the doors. A keypad was on the door. 

“Permission to shoot it?”

“Denied,” the main man shot back. Shoving to the door, he speedily typed in a 6-digit code like it was his own phone password. A green light illuminated from the top of the door, and it unlocked with a satisfying click. All five of us shoved in, shutting the door swiftly behind us as footsteps approached. 

“You think they’re in storage?” We held our breath. “Nah. They’d need a code. Check the unlocked doors, then whatever nooks and crannies you notice. They’re somewhere around here, and there’s not a lot of places for them to hide.”

“Yes sir.”

And then they were gone. We collectively exhaled in relief. 

“How did you know that code?”

“The file.”

“Oh. Missed that.”

For the first time, I took in my company. The boys were unremarkable. I had seen a thousand identical copies of them through my years in med school and SHIELD Academy. 

“Make as little sound as possible. Let’s see how long we can hide out in here. Romanoff, Moore, start looking. Jackson, help me stop the bleeding over here.”

Romanoff. So that’s duffle bag person’s name. Of the twenty-or-so four door filing cabinets, I opened two drawers and began rifling through. Nothing crazy here. Budget reports, agendas, newspaper clippings. The other person rifled through stacks quickly with as few results as me. I glanced at them, taking in their appearance. 

It struck me that they were not a boy at all, but the only other girl. This had slipped my notice until this point likely due to my mind being preoccupied by the stress of the situation, but now I felt a little silly for it. Her hair was long and straight, and her body was unmistakably slim and feminine. Her most noticeable feature was her strikingly red hair. It was silky and healthy, and I wondered if it was natural. There was no way, I thought at first. Then, looking at her roots, I noticed no color change. Not even a fade. Plus, it was soft and smooth, lacking the damage that dye would cause. 

She glanced out of the corner of her eye without turning her head. “Why are you staring at me?” she mumbled under her breath. Her voice was deep and gravelly, and I took a moment before I responded. 

“Sorry. I just noticed now you’re a girl,” I responded before I immediately realized how rude that was. “Uh, I meant— sorry—“

“Can you just focus?” she snapped back. I shut my mouth and turned back to the task. Well, I blew that. 

I continued shuffling through papers, hoping I would find something important so I could be useful in some way. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I began to note that most of the paper was in languages I couldn’t read. I only knew English, a little Spanish, and some legal Latin. 

“Can you read this?” I asked, flashing one of the papers at her. She seemed irritated that I was speaking to her again until her eyes landed on what I was holding. 

“It’s...German? I thought these people were independent.” She snatched it out of my hand, examining it closely. “You see any weird looking logos on any of these papers? If this is Hydra...”

I gulped. Yeah, I had heard about them. “No, I’d recognize a Hydra logo, I’m not stupid,” I replied, disliking the tone she had taken with me. “Just because they’re German doesn’t mean they can’t do creepy stuff independently.”

“Maybe, but they’re not German. Some of this is in English. They just switched languages in some documents. They’re hiding something.” She paused to read. “But they’re not hiding it well.” She stuffed what she was holding into the bag. “Anything in a foreign language is something that they didn’t want us to read quickly. Put it all in the bag.” 

I nodded, working faster now. The wounded man had been taken care of in the best way the others could manage for the moment, and after about five more minutes of hasty work from Romanoff and I, we returned to the others. Now was the tricky part: getting back out safely with the armed men from earlier still pacing the hallway. 

“I’ll go out. You wait here for a minute,” Romanoff volunteered. The leader nodded, and she stepped out into the hall. This decision was made so quickly that I barely had time to even process her words. Loud bangs echoed through the halls, and distantly, some screaming. 

“That was very noble of her,” I whispered. 

“Meaning?”

“She...didn’t she sacrifice herself for us? As a distraction? There must’ve been a dozen armed guys out there, she didn’t even take a gun.”

One of the men laughed. “Like she would need a gun. I don’t know why we just didn’t send her in first earlier. Probably would have saved us time and issues.” Clearly, he wasn’t taking this situation seriously, I decided. Maybe she was good, but she wasn’t superhuman. 

However, to my disbelief, the sound faded away, and she returned less than two minutes later without a scratch. Wordlessly, we followed her into the hall, sprinting out. This time, she took the front, once or twice shooting down someone in our path. I didn’t remember her having a weapon before, so she must have grabbed it off someone earlier. 

The rest went smoothly. We reached the outside again, someone contacted SHIELD, the helicopter returned and dropped a ladder for us to climb on, and we were off. 

I exhaled deeply. For the first time, I noticed how tense my body had been. I relaxed my muscles and took a seat. Romanoff handed over the duffel bag. 

She plopped down next to me, and I took the opportunity to glance at her again. “First time, right?”

“Yeah,” I breathed, shocked she was speaking to me willingly. She seemed like a lone wolf type. “You seemed like you’ve been at this for a while, though. When did you start here?”

She pursed her lips tightly, not answering my question. “Can I give you some advice?”

“Sure.”

“Get a new job. You’re not good at this.”

I didn’t respond for a moment, then the anger washed over me. “Who do you think you are? Who even are you? I deserve to be here just as much as you.”

She didn’t respond. She just shook her head and stood, turning away from me. I thought about standing and continuing the fight, but I changed my mind. Why bother. 

When I got home to my apartment, I went straight to my computer. My eyes hovered shut when I blinked, indicating how exhausted I truly was, but my mind was more active than ever. 

Who was this girl? How did everyone know her but me? I typed into google “Romanoff SHIELD New York.” Instantly, thousands of articles popped up. New York. 2012. Of course. 

She was that Avengers chick, wasn’t she?


	2. save the world

I liked my job at SHIELD for a lot of reasons. I didn’t work every single day. I was on call only, so if they needed me, I had to be available. I had heard some horror stories of being called in at 2 AM on a Friday night, but most people’s experiences were just the typical mid afternoon on a Tuesday. That meant that most days I could sleep in, watch TV, and relax. The pay was decently high, and the people were decently nice. Most days I went to the gym or at least went on a long jog. SHIELD Academy had gotten me to the best shape of my life, and I was motivated to maintain that. Still, I usually managed to sneak in a little Netflix time. 

One Thursday morning, I got a call from a “No Caller ID.” I sighed. “Hello?”

“We need you to come in today. Be here in an hour.” Click. Man of few words. 

Without missing a beat, I hurried back to my room to change into something more formal. I hopped into a blouse and suit, treating myself to flats instead of heels. If they needed me in the field, I had a SHIELD uniform in my locker at HQ. Quickly, I ran a brush through my tangled hair. It was curled, so I tried to leave it alone as much as I could, but I wanted to look professional. I had buzzed my hair about nine months back, and its regrowth left it at an awkward length currently. It was tomboyish, but in a way, I liked it even more than the buzz. Still, I decided to wear hoop earrings and mascara to accentuate that I was a woman. 

There wasn’t too much traffic compared to other days in New York, New York. Most people had already made it to work at their normal jobs. Thank God that wasn’t me. 

When I made it into the building, I realized that I had no idea who I was supposed to be meeting here. I scanned my ID through the door at the lobby. “Agent Juliet Moore. Level 1,” it read back to me. 

“Good, Agent Moore. Glad you could make it,” a male voice greeted me from behind. He opened the door for me and we both made our way through. 

“Thank you for calling me in, Agent...” my eyes trailed down to his chest, where I hoped a name tag would be to help me. 

“Coulson,” he filled in. “This will be a quick one, don’t worry. You’ll be back home in no time.”

I nodded, and he led me through another wide door, this time made of opaque material rather than glass. I continued following him until we reached what looked like a lab area. 

“Um, sir,” I interjected. “This looks outside my training. I’m not a scientist, I’m only trained in combat and—“

“Yes, I know. Just follow me,” he calmly interrupted. Well okay then, gosh. No need to tell me what’s going on or anything. 

Finally, he slowed to a halt in front of a line of vials with dull blue liquid. His hands folds together in front of him formally. “Do you recognize this?”

“Um...” Come on, think of something. “...no. Should I?”

“This is from those documents you and Agent Romanoff grabbed a few weeks ago. It took us a while to decode everything, but clearly,” he handed me a photograph, black and white, “they were trying to replicate the Super Soldier Serum.”

I tried to formulate a response as quickly as I could. “But why would they want to do that? They aren’t affiliated with any larger organizations.”

“That’s what we thought, but the materials they would need for this are way too elusive. Even SHIELD had some trouble getting their hands on some of the ingredients.”

“Okay, so what are the options? They’re either secretly a faction of another intelligence agency, or they’re sponsored by a billionaire.” I rolled that over in my head. “Which is worse?”

“More concerning, what they have come to is too close for comfort. We tested this serum,” he paused, “on animals, don’t worry, and for a short period of time, it worked.”

I inhaled sharply, the bad news overwhelming me. “Then what?”

“Then the body quickly deteriorated. Anyone that took what they have right now would die less than an hour after injection. But still, they’ve stumbled upon a formula with short term success. All they have left to do now is crack how to achieve sustainability, and then we’ve got another super soldier in the world.”

“How long do you think we have?”

“The earliest document related to this that you all brought was from a little less than six years ago, so based on their discoveries, we estimate only six to eight more months until they make a usable formula.”

There was a heavy silence between us. “If that were to happen, which it probably won’t, couldn’t we just send Captain America to take this guy out? I mean, he would be equally as strong as them.”

Coulson shook his head. “Here’s the issue, they would have the formula to the serum itself. That’s something SHIELD has been unable to produce for 70 years. We only have one super soldier. They could have an unlimited supply.”

“Ohhhh this is bad. Bad, bad, bad,” I mumbled, my gaze landing on the vials. “What if we just got to work and tried to beat them to it?”

“Our scientists are already on it, but that may not be enough. We need to make sure they don’t get there first. You all may have set them back a few weeks with your destruction of important documents, but I’m sure many of their scientists have the most important of their findings committed to memory. We can’t settle for any less than ensuring everyone on the project is in custody or eliminated.”

I nodded tightly, my mind racing. This felt like a really really heavy second task. “With all due respect, sir, this feels like an Avengers problem.”

He laughed lightly. “There’s a few issues with that, but the biggest is that most of them don’t have the SHIELD clearance to be debriefed on all of this. You don’t either, technically, but we’re not assigning any new people on this case. It’s just going to be the original team of five we deployed initially to ensure this stays as classified as possible. It’s not ideal, but we have to work with what we’ve got.” He looked at me for an indication of understanding, so I nodded yet again. Satisfied, he continued. “Now, for your assignment. All five of you will regroup here again. You will each be sent more details tonight. It is up to all of you to determine the intentions of this group, find a way to infiltrate their team in order to remain updated, destroy whatever new findings they create, and debrief the directors and I routinely to keep us informed.”

“And save the world.”

He smiled. “Sure, that too. Can you handle this?”

I didn’t even hesitate. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Same time tomorrow. Be ready.”

I nodded and turned to leave before another thought crossed my head. “Agent Coulson, I thought you said this was going to be a quick one?”

“Well, that’s entirely up to you all, isn’t it?”


	3. the first meeting

I dressed formally again the next day, and I realized that I would have to make this a habit. Goodbye, sweatpants. See you again in six to eight months. 

The drive today felt less urgent now that the mystery has been revealed. Additionally, I wasn’t a huge fan of my team members based on first impressions from before. I didn’t even know some of their names, so it wasn’t completely fair to judge them, I supposed. Either way, I wasn’t exactly in an urgent rush to be around them again. 

I pulled my ID card for SHIELD out of my pocket. Receiving it had been a real moment of pride for me. I knew that I was an official team member, but it didn’t really feel real until I got that shiny card with the big grey eagle. For safety purposes, my name and face were left off of it. Yesterday I had scanned it for the first time, but today I was doing it for the first time with having a specific job in mind. So, in a way, it actually felt real now. 

“Agent Juliet Moore. Level One.” I pushed open the door, realizing I actually didn’t know where I was going. I followed the path I had taken yesterday to the lab, reading labels on the walls as I went along. Lab 1, Lab 2, Lab 3 all the way up to Lab 20. 

“You think this is bad? These are just the engineering labs.” I swiveled around quickly, catching the eyes of who had spoken to me. “Yeah, there are more labs for testing and experimental research on the floor above us. Those ones have newer tech, too, so you’re kind of seeing the boring ones first.”

I smiled. “I don’t mind, labs aren’t really my thing.” He definitely looked familiar. “Gomez, right?”

“Yeah! Moore. I remember you now, we’re working together for this super important mission thing.”

I nodded. “Where are we headed for that?”

“You’re in the right direction, but follow me,” he offered, and I did as he said. “So, this is your first big mission, right?”

“Yes, it is. How about you?”

“Second, actually. And my last one was pretty small, so we’re basically the same.” That was very comforting, actually. I had no idea what to expect from this at all, but neither did he. 

He wasn’t so bad looking either. He was tall, with a skinnier frame than I had initially noticed. The SHIELD uniform made you look extra buff, though, so that may have been it. He had a cute haircut, a little fuzzy but still well kept. Overall, he seemed like a standard slightly-more-attractive-than-usual coworker. Eventually, he pushed open a door at the end of the hallway in the same general area of the labs. Behind the door was a solemn looking crowd, and I finally took them all in. 

At the head of the table they sat at was the man who had led them before, a very grim expression on his face as his eyes slowly traced the pair that had entered up and down. His hands were folded in front of him, and he glared as he stared at them. One thing that struck me about his appearance was a long scar that ran from about an inch away from his right away, zig-zagging all the way down to the center of his cheek like a thin lightning bolt. “Why don’t you take a seat,” he grumbled, and I immediately complied, along with my partner.

Across from me was the other boy from their first day, also donning a very serious expression. However, his did not look as deep set as the older man’s; the first man looked as though he had never smiled in his life. The second man offered a light expression, though not quite a smile, as if to say hello nonverbally.

Finally, of course, was Romanoff. I noticed that her hair was done differently currently than it was in the photographs of her at New York. Of course, she always had the same face painted on. It was completely unreadable. Not even serious, just blank. When her eyes turned to me, they didn’t change at all. It was like she was a robot. 

We all glanced at each other, none of us wanting to speak first. “My name is Agent Pierre Orion,” the head of the table announced. “I’ll be the head decision maker of the operation. Obviously, we’ll be working together to accomplish the task at hand, but officially, Coulson has placed me in charge.” There was a quiet that settled heavily across us. “Why don’t we all go around and introduce ourselves. We are going to be together a lot soon, so we should at least become acquainted first.”

“My name is Lloyd,” the man across from me said. “...Jackson. I’m...uh... an MIT grad. Been here for five years.” 

“I’m Antonio Gomez,” said Gomez, his tone much more relaxed than Jackson. He leaned back, crossing his arms. “Two years. Black Widow, I’m a huge fan,” he added playfully, clearly a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Her eyes narrowed, unamused. 

“It’s Romanoff. Natasha,” she shot back. There was quiet again, and they turned to me. I realized I was the last one left. 

“Oh! I’m Julie Moore. This is my first, um... week,” I laughed awkwardly, realizing I was the only one that hadn’t even been here a year. Agent Orion’s expression lightened a little. 

“Good. Now we’re all friends.” We looked around at each other, and he continued, “Do any of you have anything you can bring to the table? Right now, we’re just looking for a starting point.”

“I’m good with computers,” Gomez volunteered. “and if we’re sending anyone in undercover, I want it to be me. I could definitely handle it.”

“I can help wherever I’m needed. I’m specialized in almost everything,” Romanoff threw in. I almost rolled my eyes. She would say something like that: I’m perfect and amazing at everything!

“I went to medical school for a couple years, so I’m better at science and math,” I added. 

“I’m better in the field,” Jackson stated, finishing the conversation. Orion nodded, assessing what we had all contributed. 

“Well, it sounds like we have a diversely talented crowd. That’s good, we’ll need as much help as we can.” Once again, we got quiet. Orion was thinking, and the rest of us were just shifting uncomfortably. 

“Can I ask something?” We all turned our gaze to Gomez, who had once again interjected into the silence. “Is there really going to be a second Captain America? Did I hear that right from Coulson?”

“Yes,” Agent Romanoff shot back, clearly not interested in whatever joke Gomez was setting up. 

“And this is a bad thing because...?”

“Because Captain Rogers is very powerful, and that power in the wrong hands could be enough to overpower SHIELD’s forces. Stop acting like an idiot and take this seriously.”

Part of me felt a little bad for Gomez. The situation clearly had not been explained to him in full, and he was just asking a question. Everything was moving really fast. Romanoff was being overly aggressive for no reason. 

“Like an idiot? I literally got shot for this mission already, so it’s not like I see this as a joke.”

“I don’t care if you got shot. Get over it. Maybe be more careful next time.”

“That’s enough,” Orion boomed. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. “How about this: let’s just take the night and think all this over. I’m going to spend all night trying to come up with a way to begin this, and your help would be appreciated. However, it doesn’t look like any more work is going to be accomplished here. Let’s come here again tomorrow morning ready to work together. I don’t care if you like each other; frankly, I don’t really like any of you. But we have to be adults about this, because if we’re not, a lot of people are going to die. Got it?” At the conclusion of his speech, we all nodded. “Good. Then let’s call it a day. Please do more work on your own, and let us know what you figure out tomorrow.”

We all stood slowly, filtering out. Romanoff hung back along with Orion, and I wondered what they would talk about. Probably trying to work out a way to convince Coulson to create a new team. 

I spent the night trying to come up with something. I didn’t think of much, but I scrambled something together, fearing the judgement of Romanoff and Orion if I returned empty handed. 

For the first time, I considered what Romanoff had said to me in the helicopter ride home. Maybe I wouldn’t be good at this. I could probably still use my biology major to be a nurse or a pharm tech, I reasoned. Yeah, that would be my backup plan. If I failed at saving the world, I would scoop pills into plastic containers for old people. That didn’t sound so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everyone! feel free to comment any thoughts after reading, I’d love hearing from you guys! I finished mapping out the whole story today, and it’s gonna be about 35-40 chapters I think! I’m excited to get going. The chapter lengths will fluctuate, but they may get a little longer. thanks for reading, have a good day!


	4. we got a lead

Sliding my card was no less satisfying today than it was the day before. I sighed with satisfaction as I took it in for a moment. I felt so important and powerful in SHIELD. I was a part of this big, intricate machine, and even being a tiny wheel in it made me feel like I was doing the right thing. 

A skill of mine had always been that I had an excellent sense of direction. It was easy for me to navigate my way back to the conference room that we congregated in yesterday. I was not at all looking forward to meeting again today because I was fairly sure that what I had collected would be far less than the others. It would not surprise me at all if Natasha Romanoff had cracked the case of who and where it was in an hour. 

I could tell right as I stepped into the room that the atmosphere was tense. The only people in the room so far were Jackson and Romanoff. I sat across from Jackson, the same place I had been the day before. “So...what—what are we talking about?” I asked uncomfortably since no one was speaking. 

“We aren’t talking,” Jackson mumbled. “because neither of us have any idea what to do.”

“Haven’t you both done a million things like this before? Where did you start then?” I offered. 

“What we’re dealing with is clearly very heavily planned and guarded. Usually, when we run across things like this, it’s just some amateur toying around with something they don’t understand. I searched last night on every resource I could think of for the coordinates of the first building we infiltrated and it was nowhere,” Natasha quietly replied, and I just nodded. Her arms were crossed, leaned against the table.

“Well I didn’t come up with anything either,” I admitted. “What did you search the coordinates through?”

“Every SHIELD threat monitoring system. They keep tabs on pretty much every lab in America,” she responded, not hiding her disappointment at all. “I searched for if they were terrorists, medical researchers, another intelligence group, or even just every individual person that has ever been in contact with SHIELD. Most people that do things like this have tried to get projects approved by us in the past, and then SHIELD tracks them for the rest of their life to make sure they don’t do something...” she gestured vaguely in front of her “...like this.”

“Well, ok, so it’s not someone important or an important group. Did you just type it into Google?” I suggested, and she narrowed her eyes, thinking. She always did that when something was rolling around in her brain, I noticed. 

“No....” She stood and walked to the other side of the room, grabbing a computer and opening it. She typed the coordinates into Google quickly, and I watched her expression for the slightest change. 

After a few seconds, she blinked a few times, her mouth tilting into a half-smirk. “Oh. My. God,” she whispered as Orion and Gomez walked into the room. 

“What? What happened?” Gomez asked, intrigued. 

She flipped the computer around so we could see, and we all tightly huddled as she presented to us. “Look at this. I typed the coordinates into Google, and this showed up.” She pointed at the screen. “It says it was a Costco. But get this, it closed in 2011.”

“Wait, I’m confused. That place was in the middle of nowhere,” I replied, and Gomez nodded. 

“Uh, yeah, what she said. Unless they were planning on building a town, like, around the Costco,” Gomez added, attempting to ease the atmosphere. We all stared at him, and he cleared his throat. 

“Anyways,” Natasha continued, “yes, this was never a Costco. This is fake.”

“But why...?” Gomez questioned quietly, and we all contemplated it. 

“Because it’s not the only lab,” Romanoff quietly suggested. “This is just a faction of their operation, and they need a way to store contact information. This is where they store it, in plain sight.”

I nodded, trying to keep up. I never would have thought of that on my own. Agent Orion tilted his head up. “Go to the website they attached. Let’s see if we can find any hints at who could be running this.”

Romanoff complied, entering the website and quickly scanning over it. We stood and gathered behind her as her eyes flickered over the page, searching for even the smallest sign of an abnormality. 

“What’s that?” Gomez asked, poking the screen at the center. In large, black text, it read, ‘Thank you for 74 years of service!’ “You said this place is fake, right? That’s a weird detail.”

Romanoff hummed in agreement. “There! Right there!” Jackson piped up, and I flinched a little. I had completely forgotten he was there. He was a ghost. 

When my eyes reached where he was pointing, I found more text. ‘Happy trails to our 529 employees.’ Beside that was a bright yellow smiley face. 74, 529. The next five or six minutes were silent. We all scanned the page, looking for more numbers. 

At one point, Romanoff scrolled down a bit, revealing more white. Ok, that meant what we were looking for wasn’t in plain sight. All that was left was the smiley face and the text. I zoned in on the smiley face. There wasn’t much to it, just the typical lines for eyes and bright yellow background. It had little red circles for rosy cheeks. Innocent enough. 

There was something about it, though. I leaned a little closer, catching what was off. There was a small line under and off the tip of each eye. They weren’t just lines at all; they were tiny #1s. 

“There! It’s ones!” I pointed at the smiley face. I found myself immediately looking to Romanoff’s reaction to my exclamation, and she raised her eyebrows in understanding. 

“Well done, Moore,” Orion congratulated, and I swelled with pride, suppressing my smile by pulling my lips together. 

Romanoff pulled out a pen and pad to write on. She jotted down ‘74 529 11.’ She turned over her shoulder, one eyebrow tilted. “If we add an area code, that could be a phone number.”

She rearranged the sets of numbers into every possible combination, creating six lines, then pulling out her phone. “It’s set to No Caller ID, right?” Jackson checked. 

“No, it’s set to Natasha Alianova Romanoff, SHIELD Agent,” she mumbled sarcastically. Jackson rolled his eyes in annoyance as she punched in the first combination. Her phone was set to speaker, and we all held our breath as it rang. 

Nothing. This number did not exist. Without missing a beat, she hung up and moved on to the next set. Once again, no luck. Three and four also yielded no success. 

I prayed silently as the fifth number rang. It rang once, and then it rang twice. Please, please, please, I thought. It rang a third time, and Romanoff’s thumb hovered over the red ‘End Call’ button. Just as she was about to give up and end it, there was a click from the other line. Silence. There was someone else on the other side of the call.

“Who is this? Who are you?” Gomez asked, breaking the silence. Immediately, the other end hung up. 

Romanoff glared at him furiously. “What is wrong with you? We didn’t even get him to speak, we could have run voice recognition software on it. You never ever reveal your identity first,” she scolded, frustration written all over her. 

“It’s fine,” Jackson interrupted. My head snapped over to him. He was typing furiously on the computer. I hadn’t even noticed him start doing that. “I tracked the call from the second he picked up. All he needed to do was answer. We’ve got his location.”

I sighed in relief. My prayers had been answered, and we finally had a lead. “So, where do we go from here?”

“It’s pretty far, about a five hour drive. But get this, it’s the opposite direction from the base we infiltrated a few days ago. They must really not want to be affiliated with those guys, or they are trying not to get caught.”

“You have an address.”

“Yeah, I’m looking at the surrounding neighborhood now. It’s just a small town. It looks like this person was in the basement of another building.” Jackson leaned closer to the screen. “It’s a pediatric office.”

“Let’s drive out tonight,” Agent Orion ordered. “We can all take a company car. Meet here at midnight, armed and in uniform. Hopefully, we can end this tonight.”

His final sentence kneaded through my thoughts the rest of the night. Fury and Coulson would be immensely impressed. Maybe I would get promoted. This would be the quickest world saving effort of all time. 

The realistic part of me reasoned that it would be too easy. How did they get this much money in the first place? We had stumbled upon the tip of a very confusing iceberg, and I was worried what diving to the bottom of it would revealed.


	5. exploring the lab

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slight tw: brief mention of animal abuse

The zipper of my uniform made a satisfying ‘zzzz’ as it slid up. I had tried it on a few times before, but it still felt brand new. My uniform had outed me as a newbie the first time I was surrounded by more experienced agents. My navy blue was so bright, and there were almost zero folds. Orion’s, in comparison, was much more grey-ish and creased. That was something to be earned, I suppose. 

The group was quiet when I arrived. I came about fifteen minutes early, a loaded gun tucked against my side. I had triple checked that the safety was on. All set. 

Romanoff leaned against the car we would be taking, a big Ford Escalade. Her eyes looked down, focused on nothing. Her eyebrows were scrunched down, and I wondered what she was thinking so hard about. The only person we were waiting for was Gomez. It was like he had made an effort to alienate himself the last few days. 

He finally pulled up, leisurely swaggering over to join us. “Who’s driving?”

“Me,” Romanoff asserted, rounding over to the driver’s seat. 

“Shotgun!” I called, and Romanoff looked up and smirked at me. The three men packed into the backseat and the row behind that. 

“Are we ready? No one’s forgetting anything?” Orion checked. I shook my head along with everyone else, tapping my gun to ensure it was still there. 

“Roll out,” Romanoff said under her breath, pulling the car out into the street. Gomez and Jackson were seated side by side, and Orion occupied the entire back. We rode silently for about ten minutes. Breaking the silence, to no one’s surprise, was Gomez. 

He yawned loudly. “Do you guys care if I take a nap before we get there? Don’t worry, I don’t snore.” An uneasy laugh ripples through the car. 

“Sure, but don’t lean on me,” Jackson responded. “Not in the cuddling mood.”

I turned over my shoulder in surprise. “Agent Jackson!” I replied, pretending to sound scandalized. We giggled, and even Romanoff’s face quirked into a smile. 

It was only an hour or so before most of the car was peacefully silent. All three of the boys in the back seat had dozed off, some more heavily than others. Now it was just the ladies, and I took this time to reflect a bit.

I wondered what my parents would say if they knew what I was doing. It was company policy to not share too much information about the work we did with outside parties. Of course, I had been tempted to overshare a bit with my family in order to brag or tell an interesting story. However, I had been good about keeping it to myself. Better safe than sorry, I guess. Still, it sucked sometimes to tell my brother and parents that I was doing glorified police work when I was on my way to bust a mad scientist in the middle of the night. 

They had been skeptical when I announced my switch from med school to SHIELD academy. I was always an active person; I lettered in softball all four years of high school and my diet was decent. Still, I had never been a fighter, and I had a long way to go to become a field agent. Every step of the way was difficult, but I didn’t regret any of it. I found myself having to be reminded of that a lot lately. You don’t regret this. This is going to all turn out fine. 

Then, my attention turned to Natasha Romanoff. I realized how precious little I knew about her. She had red hair, was good at her job, dabbled with the Avengers, and had been here for a while. Personality wise, I just couldn’t get a read on her. She had this cold exterior, and she was so talented at almost every task we had encountered. 

“When did you start working here?” I suddenly asked, curious. 

“Why?” she snapped back quickly. I withdrew, feeling less confident than I had moments before. 

“I don’t know. I was just thinking. You’re really good at this,” I responded, hoping a compliment would ease her distaste for my question. It did not. 

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as if I was shining a very bright light at her. “I’ve been doing this as long as I can remember.”

Well, that didn’t clarify anything. It wasn’t like SHIELD hired babies. “Sooo...were your parents agents? Or did you have some kind of memory loss?”

“Why do the new agents always ask so many questions?” she returned. 

“Why do you have such a bad attitude towards this job?”

Romanoff kept her eyes on the road, her expression annoyed. “Because it’s pretty much babysitting. Loki’s scepter is out there and here I am, with three brand new agents, taking orders from someone that has never led a serious operation before.”

Sometimes I thought I had anger issues. It only took little probes like these to get me furious with her. She seriously said ‘babysitting?’ “Well, maybe there’s a reason they put you on this mission,” I huffed in return, trying to keep my temper in control. 

“What does that mean?” 

“It means you’re barely even an Avenger.” 

It was deathly quiet. Maybe I took that a little too far. I had a tendency to do that. 

“Oooh snap,” whispered Gomez from the backseat. I swiveled around quickly and saw him, Jackson’s head rested on his shoulder. If I wasn’t so annoyed with Romanoff, this would be a little funny. “She just went there.”

“Shut up, Gomez,” Romanoff retorted, and no one spoke again for a long time. 

After hours of highways and backroads, we eventually reached a small town. It was still only a little after four AM, so we were pretty much the only ones on the road. 

My stomach turned as the houses ticked by. We were getting closer and closer to this location. Maybe we’ll get lucky and this will be the last day of this mission, I reasoned. 

We slowed to a stop a few blocks away from the building. We ran through a short checklist. Everyone have a gun? A radio? A headpiece? What’s the plan? Who goes where?

We concluded that we would all take the elevator down to the floor we sought together, and if necessary, we would split up to search the area. 

We didn’t walk as a group. Orion broke us up, sending us on different routes and instructing us to walk at different speeds so we would not all arrive together at the same time. 

Gomez and I were paired. We walked side by side, my eyes focused on my feet. “So, you and Natasha don’t get along?”

I shrugged. “Not really. She’s kind of annoying.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I agree. She’s kind of hot, though. Like, killer body.”

“Um, yeah, I guess?” I said, confused how to respond to that. 

“Do you think she would be down to hook up?” 

“She doesn’t seem to like you at all,” I replied bluntly, and he shrugged, thinking it over. 

“Maybe I’ll just do something super heroic tonight that’ll change her mind. Like, if someone shoots at us, I’ll dive in front of her and be like ‘No! Hit me instead!’ Chicks go crazy over stuff that.”

“Do whatever you want, man,” I sighed, bored by this conversation. “If you’re getting hit by bullets tonight, it’ll probably be Romanoff firing them.”

He laughed loudly, and I glared at him. He was loud, and not in the friendly way. When he shouted and laughed, it was just obnoxious, like a teenager. How did this guy make it through training? 

The door was locked at the pediatricians’ building, most likely because it was the middle of the night and we were breaking and entering. Gomez jiggled the door handle for a few seconds, and I rolled my eyes. 

“That’s not going to do anything. Just...move,” I mumbled, exasperated. I leaned my body weight against the door as I crouched to examine the lock. I ran over ways to pick a lock, trying to think of one that would not completely break the door. We were trying to be discrete. I pulled a small pin out of my pocket and fidgeted it around in the lock for a few minutes. No luck. 

“Ugh,” I groaned. “This usually works. What kind of lock even is this?”

“Have you tried saying the magic word?”

“Oh my god, will you just shut up?” I growled, slamming my first against the door in annoyance. 

Crack. Oh no. Nervously, I looked where I had hit the glass door, met with massive splintered cracks running up, down, left, right. I stood in horror, covering my mouth with my hand. “I didn’t mean to—“

“Oooh, Romanoff is gonna kill you! You just blew our cover!” Gomez laughed, and I glared at him furiously. 

“Well, if you hadn’t been antagonizing me, maybe I wouldn’t have lost my temper!”

“Are you gonna turn into the Hulk?” he teased. “And break some more doctors’ doors?”

“Let’s just...let’s just go inside now. Maybe they won’t notice,” I said, overwhelmed with embarrassment. With a heavy sigh, I nudged the broken glass, and it fell loudly from its frame. Reaching through the new hole, I unlocked the door with ease, letting us in. 

The lobby area made it clear we were in the right building. There were fish painted on the walls, a shelf full of coloring books and crayons, and a desk for a receptionist. 

I hung around awkwardly as we waited for the other three to arrive. I was not eager to make conversation with Gomez, but it felt like he was waiting for the opportunity to say something. Probably tease me again. Jackson arrived first. 

“Graceful,” he said sarcastically under his breath, and I blushed. 

Then, came Orion and Romanoff. This was the moment I was dreading. “What happened?” he demanded. 

“It was an accident,” I hurriedly explained. “I was trying to pick the lock, this just...happened. I’m sorry.” Romanoff stared at me icily, but she said nothing. 

We packed into the elevator. Jackson pushed the Ground Level button, and we whooshed downwards. With a bing, the door slid back open. 

The room was very poorly lit. When we stepped out, the search immediately began for a light switch. Someone flicked the lights on. Finally, I could properly assess my surroundings. 

The basement looked like something out of a horror movie. There was not a single color; everything was a tone of gray, illuminated by cheap fluorescent lighting. There were long tables in the center of the room, covered in wooden test tube racks. There were hundreds of vials, filled with dull red liquid. My stomach dropped. It was definitely blood. We had stumbled across some sort of laboratory. 

A scratching echoed through the room, and turned quickly when I noticed it. Romanoff was bent over a bin, examining where the sound was coming from. I peaked in, discovering it contained about thirty mice, frantically wiggling and clawing at each other. For a moment, our dislike of each other was forgotten, and we stared in confusion. 

There were three identical bins, silent. Apprehensively, I lifted the lid of the adjacent one. Inside, there were about half as many mice, acting normally. Some slept, some wandered aimlessly, and some attempted to climb the side of the container. The second bin was the same as the previous. 

My guard down, I lifted the third lid. I was met with a piling heap of dead mice. I gasped, dropping the lid and stepping away in disgust. With haste, the group huddled to observe my discovery. Their reactions were similar. 

“Aw, man. This place is so creepy,” Gomez whispered. For once, I agreed. 

“This is actually good,” Orion reasoned. “All of these mice are one failed attempt. They aren’t moving along with the serum.”

Silently, we spread out again. Next to the rows of vials were a few piles of small cork stoppers. Grabbing a handful, I began sticking them into the lids of the vials, stuffing them in my pockets to take back to headquarters. 

“Good thinking,” Gomez commented, mimicking my process. Jackson began rifling through a drawer, and Romanoff was still examining the mice, her face revealing she was deep in thought. Without flinching, she lifted the bin, moving it out of the way. “I wouldn’t touch that!” Gomez called. “They look rabid or something!”

“It’s not the mice I’m worried about,” she replied, and I looked up from what I was doing to stare. She prodded the wall, interested in its dull white tiles. 

Gomez narrowed his eyes. “What are you—“ 

“Shh!” she hissed. With her head leaned against the wall, she tapped on the tiles again with her fist. “It’s hollow.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a long, black weapon with glowing blue sides. We were all staring at her now.

“Romanoff!” Gomez anxiously repeated. “Be careful! Natasha!”

I realized what he was doing: the ‘nervous because I care about you’ routine. This was part of his big plan to get with Romanoff. “Shut up,” I shot at him, annoyed once again. 

She whacked the tiles a few times until they cracked, then pulling them away from the wall. Sure enough, she revealed a small cubby. Within this area were four small tubes, unlike anything else in the room. They glowed blue. 

She stuffed them in her pocket and turned to us. “You got some blood samples, right?” Gomez and I nodded. “Good. Then we have to get out of here. Now.”

The elevator ride back upstairs had a more frantic undertone, but I was just generally confused. Whatever Natasha had discovered was very alarming to her and Orion, but I was unfamiliar with the substance. The fish painted on the walls of the lobby weren’t endearing anymore. Now, it just felt unsettling. 

“What is that?” I pestered the group. To my relief, it appeared I was not alone in my confusion. 

“It’s vibranium,” Orion finally clarified. “That amount is worth over three billion dollars. It’s the strongest metal on Earth.”


	6. the next step

I was very much not looking forward to doing our first report to Agent Coulson and Director Fury. We had definitely been productive and were making strides, but we had no idea what we were looking at. Additionally, if they did have any clues about what we showed them, it would only reveal bad news. I was getting really tired of hearing bad news. 

We agreed that Agent Orion should present our findings. Truthfully, as much as I disliked her, I thought that Romanoff should be leading our group. She fought aliens and that Loki guy a couple months ago, which made her a lot more qualified than the rest of us. However, Agent Coulson had appointed Orion to make the calls, and I respected that. 

The rest of us sat quietly in the conference room while Orion left. There was a sense of guilt in the air as we waited for him. We all wished we had more to provide. All we had was more questions.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Gomez felt the need to say something. He sat next to me, and I watched as he leaned back in his chair and stretched. “Is it weird that I hope they replace me?” he asked. “That lab place was so weird. This isn’t just the usual week or two mission.”

“Stick around with SHIELD and you’ll get much worse assignments,” Romanoff replied. “This is nothing.”

“You all ever get in trouble in school?” he changed the subject. “I feel like I’m waiting for my parents to get back from the principal’s office right now.”

I smiled a bit. “Yeah, I did. Nothing exciting, I just got in a fight,” I recalled. “It was with this girl that had been giving me trouble the whole year.”

“Did you win?” Gomez asked. 

“No,” I laughed. “No, I got beat really bad. It wasn’t fair, though, because her boyfriend came and helped.” I thought about it. “I’m pretty sure he’s in jail, though, and she’s pregnant, so who’s the real winner?”

Gomez laughed, and Jackson said, “I never got in trouble. I was a perfect student.”

“I got in trouble a lot,” Gomez added. 

“What a shock,” I sarcastically responded, and he and I smiled at each other. He was a little handsome when he wasn’t being irritating, I noticed. 

“What about you, Romanoff?” Gomez prompted. “Get caught kissin’ any boys in high school?”

Her expression remained stoic. “I didn’t go to high school.”

“Ugh, you’re so lucky,” I replied, trying to lighten the mood. “I think I’d rather have been a SHIELD agent than a high school student.”

“I wasn’t a SHIELD agent, either.” 

What was she, then? A frog? She had mentioned a few times before that she had worked here for a while, and now she was saying she did not start until after she was a teenager? Which was the lie?

We chatted a bit more until the door slid open, revealing Orion’s return. All eyes landed on him as he made his way to the front of the table. 

“So?” Jackson prompted. 

“They were happy with the progress.” All of us collectively sighed in relief. “But they have no idea who is behind this. SHIELD makes so many enemies,” he continued. 

“Do they think it’s Hyrda?” Gomez asked. Everyone was so obsessed with Hydra. 

Orion hesitated. “It’s a possibility. We shouldn’t be too quick to assume that, though.”

“If we still don’t know who we’re dealing with, what do we do next?” I asked, not feeling much better. 

“We have the blood samples. We can run those in the lab, try to match the DNA,” Romanoff suggested. 

I had no idea how she was so good at this, but she was. We adhered to her suggestion, and just a few days later, we had a typed analysis waiting for us from SHIELD’s lab technicians. 

Romanoff skimmed it first. She was the first to arrive every day. When I entered the room, it was just her sitting at the table, the papers sprawled in front of her. 

“Oh, good. It’s back. Who are we working with?”

“We have no idea,” she responded icily. “It’s not human blood. It’s from the rats.”

“Mice.”

“What was that?” 

“It wasn’t rats. It was mice,” I corrected. She rolled her eyes, leaning her crossed arms against the table. 

The others were just as discouraged at the revelation that we still had nothing. For about an hour, we debated our next step. There was an advocate to return to the lab, but we agreed this would be the wrong direction to take. We had not been secretive at all about our break in, so the area was certainly more monitored than our first time.

“I don’t know if this is possible“ I prefaced, “but could we check for fingerprints on the vials and vibranium tube?” 

“We’ll only recognize prints from United States citizens, and they’ll have to have been touched recently,” Romanoff said bluntly. “The lab was completely deserted when we got there, and—”

“It’s worth a shot,” Orion spoke over her. She didn’t like that, I noticed. She said nothing, but she stared at him coldly, annoyance written all over her. “We’ll send it back to the lab.”

“That’s a waste of time,” Romanoff insisted. “They’ll just tell us there’s nothing, and it’ll waste a full day. We’re working on a tight schedule.”

“Well what choice do we have, Agent Romanoff? Do you want to interrogate the blood samples? Shoot them? Call the Avengers?” Orion sighed, and her lips tightened into a thin line. Orion scolding her had made the room awkward, and the boys silently filed out. 

I stood to join them, but first turned to Romanoff. She was completely frozen in her chair, spookily calm. I opened my mouth to say something. I didn’t even know what. ‘Haha, suck it, someone finally put you in your place you stupid ginger.’ 

“Those aren’t my only skills,” she said, noticing I was still present. 

“Oh?”

“Years of training, and all I’m known for is calling the Avengers,” she mumbled.

“That’s not true,” I responded, and her gaze met mine. 

“Really?”

“Of course not. You’re also known for shooting guns and interrogating people,” I said, trying not to laugh. Her face fell back to its intimidating neutrality. My entire drive home, I smugly recounted the interaction. That was a good one, I congratulated myself. Totally got her. 

“Twenty-eight different fingerprints,” Gomez read aloud. “Three connected to our database. Good thinking, Moore.” He punched my shoulder playfully, and I grinned. 

“Where did you get the idea from? TV?” Romanoff commented. I rolled my eyes. 

“Are you interrogating me right now?” 

“That’s enough, girls,” Orion intervened. We stared at each other silently, and I could tell I had gotten under her skin. Good. Everyone worshipped her like she was the sun goddess around here. “Did they attach the people’s profiles to their report?”

“Yes. The first one has more pages than the second. Actually, the second and third just have names, no address or anything. Nothing too notable.” He paused, reading the first profile, “Kevin Johnson. They have an address, ID, and,” he paused, flipping the page. His mouth curled into a smile, “an op-ed titled ‘Opinion: Avengers Need To Be Kept In Check.’”

All four of us turned to Romanoff, laughing quietly. She did not seem to find it as funny as us, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. “Well, I would’ve liked to have seen Kevin close a wormhole.”

“You mean the wormhole that Tony Stark was on the other side of?” I added, smiling smugly. She glared at me. 

“He’s fine, isn’t he? I mean, as fine as Stark can be. Come to think of it, Moore, how many wormholes have you closed?”

“Girls!” Orion frustratedly exclaimed. “I do not like the attitude you’ve taken with each other. Can we please just focus on finding the scientist?” He huffed, turning back to Gomez. “Start working out a travel plan. We’re going to pay this guy a visit...and be nice to each other while doing it, please.”


	7. airplane conversations

Arriving to work lately had become connotated with receiving something we had requested the previous day. It just appeared like magic, so I didn’t think too much about how it got there. The typed reports we requested? They just were sitting, freshly printed when I arrived. 

Today, it was a stack of fake IDs and plane tickets. “We’re flying?” I asked, trying to suppress the excitement from my voice. 

“Yes, we’re leaving in the middle of the day, and we don’t want to give Mr. Johnson enough time to learn we’re coming and leave,” Orion clarified. “The address connected to him is a little over an hour away from the lab. Driving six-plus hours is a waste of our precious little time.”

Say less. I examined my fake, shockingly convinced. The name it provided was similar to mine. Jane Morgan. Her birthday was a few months off from mine, and I made a note of it and it’s zodiac sign. That’s how my fakes used to get busted in college. Forgetting the birthday. 

“SHIELD’s getting lazy,” Romanoff sighed. “Natalie Rushman. I’ve already used this identity.”

“Well, we don’t have mountains of time, and it worked perfectly well before. Are we ready to leave?”

“Yes, sir.”

We drove separately. It felt strange to wear something more casual to work, but it wasn’t like I could wear my SHIELD uniform to an airport. That might garner a few stares. 

One of the strangest things about working at SHIELD was seeing people who didn’t. Our team had a countdown we were operating on. Two months until we lose control of the most powerful weapon ever created, and yet as I drove to work every day, there were the same songs playing on the radio as any other day. When I turned on the TV at night, it was the same reruns as any usual night. People were living their lives, blissfully unaware of how close the world was to chaos. It made me wonder how many times that had been me. The day before Loki attacked New York had just been a typical, boring day for me.

One by one, we entered the airport, planning on regrouping after we boarded the plane. The flight would be short, I guessed. There wouldn’t be a layover, so I estimated only around an hour of travel. 

I soon learned that you fly first class with SHIELD. In my entire life, I had never flown first class. The reasoning was to avoid long waits before and after flights and overcrowded planes with too many strangers. The champagne was nice, too, though. 

I didn’t bring much baggage since all I needed for the day was work items. Because of this, I went straight to boarding, finding the team in the same general vicinity near the back of the plane. I walked back to join them. 

“Shouldn’t we be spread apart?” I asked quietly. 

“If you act like a normal human being traveling with friends, there shouldn’t be a problem,” Jackson whispered back, smiling. “All you need to do is not act like you have secrets and no one will bug you.” 

True, I supposed. But why would I want to sit with them? Gomez was a total creep, Romanoff was cold and distant, Jackson said two words a day, and Orion was old. A part of me felt like I was being invited to sit at the cool kids table, though, and I didn’t want to be the only one alone. Plus, first class seating was huge, so I would still have some personal space. 

With that in mind, I claimed a seat near Gomez. Take off was smooth, and I pulled out a book to pass time. 

“Are you seriously reading?” Gomez asked, leaning next to me. “They have movies, you know. Not good ones, but still. Want to watch one? You can pick.”

“No. The flights short, and I didn’t bring any money.”

“Ok, be honest. Is it because you don’t like me?” 

I thought about it. “Yes.” He laughed, and I was relieved I didn’t hurt his feelings or make him angry. I turned over my shoulder, double checking that the others weren’t listening to us. Jackson had already dozed off, and Romanoff was far enough away she would not be able to hear. She was staring out the window in the far back, in her own world. 

“Ok, well that’s my fault. I hope my comments about Romanoff wasn’t what did it,” he said, talking quieter than usual. 

“Once again, I do not care how you feel about Romanoff.” 

“I’m starting to think that’s a dead end, anyways.” Was he seriously going to talk to me about this again?

“I’m just going to stop you right there,” I interrupted. “I’m your coworker, and I’m a girl. Maybe you can talk to Jackson about this?”

“I’m sorry,” he quickly responded. “There I go again, see? I just talk without thinking.”

“Then you’re a terrible spy.”

“Maybe you’re right.” We sat quietly for a moment, and I let his words roll through my thoughts. He did seem to feel at least a bit bad for making me uncomfortable. Second chances never killed anyone, right?

“It’s fine. Just forget about it,” I finally said. “I wish I could drink on here, but I think that would interfere with the mission.”

“Yes, it would. If we catch this guy, though, you can come over to my place, and we can drink then.” I narrowed my eyes, and he quickly added, “As friends! You assume the worst of me.”

This time, I laughed. “It’s not my fault! You constantly have this weird tone, and you say ambiguous stuff.” 

“Alright, here’s a non-ambiguous question. What book are you reading?”

I had forgotten all about the book that rested open on my lap, so I flipped the cover over to present it to him. “Basic Coding. I feel like that’s where I fall behind you guys.”

“I think I fall behind in the general intelligence category.” 

The hairs on the back of my neck stood, and I turned quickly. Rather than confirming my paranoia, I caught Romanoff staring directly at us. Most people immediately broke eye contact when they were caught staring, but she maintained her gaze for a few more moments before slowly looking away. 

“Romanoff,” I muttered. “She’s odd.”

“Yeah. I heard someone say she actually interrogated Loki.”

“Seriously?”

“Mhm. And remember when Tony Stark had that issue at his expo? Right after the race car incident? She was there then, too.”

“Do you think it’s weird she got grouped with us? We’re all rookies,” I asked, recounting what she had said to me on the way to the lab. 

“I think SHIELD has no idea what they’re doing,” Gomez confided. “You notice how none of us share the same skills? Jackson’s good with computers, I’m good with combat, you’re good at science, Romanoff’s got more experience. They’ve got no clue what to expect.”

“What about Orion?”

“He’s just here because they need someone to keep us together. Imagine if Romanoff were leading the team,” Gomez chuckled. “She’d run it like a boot camp.”

“Well, thank God for Orion, then.”

“You can just call me Antonio,” he added out of nowhere. 

“What?”

“Antonio. It’s my first name.”

“Well, yeah, I know that, but why?”

“Because we’re friends?” he suggested, and I granted him a small smile. That actually didn’t sound so bad. I had to admit, I was not expecting to get close with him. Jackson most likely would have been my first choice, but beggars can’t be choosers, right? A friend is a friend, and as an agent, work friends were hard to come by. 

The more time I spent with him, the more I noticed he wasn’t so bad. He was actually, conventionally, objectively, very attractive. Since I was very young, I had a list of traits in my head that made men desirable. Efficient, organized, very practical. Sadly, no one had ever met all of my criteria, but many men had come close. Tall, check. Dark hair, green eyes, check. Nice skin, check. White teeth, check. Very fit, check. There was something missing, though. I couldn’t put my finger on it. 

Maybe if I figured that out, I would be attracted to him, I decided. I pictured us as a couple. That would make sense, right? Two SHIELD agents. Risky, but adventurous. Yes, that would work! 

“Antonio. Okay, then you can call me Julie.”

He beamed. Hmm. Well, it wasn’t the smile. That was handsome, too. There was something missing, but I wasn’t quite sure what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol


	8. the criminal’s house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for a little bit of violence/blood

We taxi’d our way to about a mile from our address. Of course, we could not all ride together. This time, I was grouped with Jackson. Unsurprisingly, the cab was silent. Jackson was certainly a man of few words. I didn’t mind that, but it was definitely intimidating at times. 

We walked casually after our drop off. “Sooo...” I began, hoping to start a conversation to alleviate the quiet. “Where are you from?” 

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, disliking his defensiveness. “Just forget it, I guess.”

“...Boston,” he eventually responded. “What about you?”

“Columbus.”

“Hm.”

He did not attempt to maintain the small talk, so I dropped it. Good thing one of the requirements for this mission wasn’t people skills. Or general friendliness. 

My backpack weighed against my back as I fiddled with the straps. I mentally prayed that the house we approached would not be another creepy horror scene. At the end of the street we traipsed down, three tall figures were standing, appearing casual. We were almost there. 

“Good, you made it,” Orion greeted us. The house appeared normal. Nothing about it screamed ‘nightmare lab.’ Actually, it was a fairly nice house in a safe-looking neighborhood. To my surprise, there was a dull red car parked in the driveway. 

“Alright,” Jackson sighed, unzipping his bag. I did the same, pulling out my compact handgun that I had packed. I drew a nervous breath as Romanoff approached the door. 

“What’s the strategy, here?” she whispered. “Do we break down the door and overwhelm him, or do we operate with stealth and surprise him?”

“Overwhelm,” Orion directed, and Romanoff nodded. “We have no idea how dangerous this man could be. Be prepared for deadly combat.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I mentally prepared for the horrors that could be behind that door. Romanoff withdrew mechanically from her position before powerfully running toward the door and kicking it open. It flung forward. We were in. 

We shoved our way through the door, guns drawn. Upon entry, I was met with Kevin, sitting on his couch wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. The house was completely underwhelming. 

“Kevin Johnson, you’re under arrest,” Romanoff said, lifting him by his shirt and pinning him against the wall like he was a paper doll, swiftly handcuffing him. My heart skipped seeing her do this. Probably just nerves. 

Orion recited his his rights to him as he struggled violently. However, no matter how much he wriggled around and attempted to hit Romanoff away, he didn’t even get close to evading her grasp. She did not budge, dragging him into his kitchen and slamming him down into a chair. 

“I’m not telling you anything without my lawyer,” he spat at Romanoff. “This is ridiculous! Breaking and entering!”

“We have reasonable suspicion that you are connected to illegal experimentation,” she clarified, unfazed by his hostility. Her expression had settled to complete, eerie blankness. 

“You have the wrong guy!” he exclaimed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mr. Johnson,” Orion said, his voice dripping with ease. “Your fingerprints were all over the scene. You’re directly linked to them in our database.” The contrast between the two of them was interesting to witness develop. They were becoming the classic good-cop-bad-cop. Orion continued, “Now, I understand we all get can caught up in bad things. Is that what happened?”

“I...” Johnson’s eyes flickered over to Antonio, and they lingered. I turned to Antonio, noticing he was holding a photograph that he had plucked off of the wall. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Orion sighed, disappointed. I took a seat on the couch, realizing I would not be useful for the time being. Romanoff rotated back into conversation. “I don’t know who you think you’re fooling,” she quietly began, “but I’ve dealt with a thousand smarter, stronger, and more experienced men than you. I see right through this. When did you get mixed up in this? Who is your employer?”

“I already told you, I—“

Romanoff struck him across the face, mid-sentence. “Wrong. Try again.”

“You’re insane!” he cried, his voice breaking. “I’ve never experimented on anything!” 

Without pulling back, she tightened her fist and struck him again in the direct center of his face. With a sickening crack, his nose broke, a thick stream of blood cascading down his face. He gasped in pain and shock, attempting to twist away from her. 

I stood, feeling a little sick. It occurred to me that Kevin Johnson was an extremely generic name. Would it be entirely impossible for SHIELD to make a mistake and switch them up? 

I didn’t know if I needed air or proof. All I knew was that I could not sit and watch Romanoff violently question this terrified man anymore. I had to find some kind of tangible evidence that we weren’t the bad guys here.

Locating what looked like the bedroom, I rifled through his drawers and desk. There was nothing suspicious at all. Panicking, I entered his bathroom, pulling through his medicine cabinet. I was met with only Tylenol, a toothbrush, and some sleep meds. Everything seemed unnervingly normal in this man’s house. 

Through the hallway, I carefully examined each framed picture. He did not appear to have a family. Every picture depicted a landscape, somewhere he had travelled and photographed. One was him and a friend. Normal, normal, normal.

Hesitantly, I made my way back to Romanoff and Johnson. Maybe, I hoped, they had switched out again, and Orion was back to his role of good cop. 

No such luck. When I returned, Johnson’s lip was busted open and his eyes were ringed an unnatural shade, indicating blooming black eyes. His nose was even more disfigured than before, the source of an inhuman cascade of blood. Romanoff looked completely undeterred, leaning into his personal space to speak. 

“—who your employer is, and you’re going to tell me, now!” she demanded, her voice increasing in hostility. 

“Romanoff!” I intervened, desperation leaking into my cry. Her eyes snapped over to me, confused and annoyed at the interruption. This was likely a mistake, but I could not allow the torture to continue any longer. “I need to speak to you, now.”

She nodded to my surprise, and Orion stepped over to continue speaking with Kevin. He would likely be friendly and gentle in order to make him feel safe, so I didn’t mind leaving them alone. 

After we both entered the bedroom, I shut the door. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at me expectantly. “Well? What did you find?” 

“Nothing!” I quietly replied. “His house shows no signs of suspicious activity. I think we have the wrong guy.” She rolled her eyes, something I noticed she did a lot. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me! There’s probably half a million Kevin Johnsons in the world. It’s not like it’s some unique name.”

“That’s not what’s happening here,” she seethed. “You just interrupted my interrogation because you have a weak stomach.”

“And what if he’s telling the truth? He’s not budging on his story, and his reactions seemed genuine.” I paused, collecting my thoughts. “Don’t you think he would have wavered at least a little by now if he was lying?”

“I’ve interrogated men for two weeks straight before they crack. Some people just need more persuasion than others.”

“You’re sick.” 

“And you’re weak.”

She brushed past me, stalking toward the door. I huffed, trying to suppress my fury before I did something I would regret. Weak! It wasn’t weak to have literal human decency. I was asking for the literal bare minimum: don’t torture someone until you have at least a little evidence they did something wrong.

“I’m not weak. You’re just a-a...robot!” I shot at her, and she stiffened, swiveling back around to face me. My voice may have wavered, but it still seemed to have had an effect on her. 

“I. Am not. A robot,” she quietly responded, deathly serious. Her face was completely devoid of emotion. “I’m just good at my job.”

“Do you even feel anything? That man,” I pointed past the door, “is clearly innocent. What if you take this too far and kill an innocent man?” 

Anger flashed across her face, and she gave me a firm shove. I stumbled backwards, managing to keep my footing. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she muttered icily. “No idea at all.” With that, she stomped out of the room and returned to the victim. I sighed, plopping down into the bed. I had failed at saving Kevin magnificently, and to make matters worse, Romanoff despised me even more now. Maybe I had hit a sensitive spot. Whatever. 

Come on, I said to myself. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. This is your job. Deal with it. For some reason, her words had the ability to cut deeper than if Jackson or Antonio said the same thing. Maybe because she was an Avenger. Then again, if I was an Avenger, my ego would probably become insufferable as well. 

The room felt more gentle with Orion conducting it. As I entered, he was saying, “...anything you can tell us would be very much appreciated.”

“Not much,” Kevin said, his words sounding funny with his busted lip, moving his face carefully to avoid pain. “Everyone is so secretive.”

Antonio was nowhere to be found, I noticed. Neither was Jackson. “That’s fine, Mr. Johnson. Really, any help at all is appreciated. How did you get hired?” Orion prompted. 

“Okay, well...” It dawned on me that he was talking about the lab. Oh my God. Romanoff was right, this was him after all. Orion as the good cop actually cracked him. “I don’t know my employer. That’s true. I hardly know anyone there. Even the other scientists, I mean, only known, like, three of them.”

“And who are they?”

He listed a few names. With some light coaxing and affirmations that SHIELD would set up some kind of witness protection for him, he eventually caved and provided an address for one of them. Orion jotted this down, stuffing the note in his jacket. 

“Really, Mr. Johnson, this is great. Now, we will have to send you up to New York for some more questioning, nothing to worry about.”

Orion stood, and Antonio and Jackson re-emerged from different halls. They must have been listening while doing a bit more searching around. Reconvened, we stood in a huddle to discuss the plan. 

“Moore should take him back to New York,” Romanoff stated. I glared at her. 

“Absolutely not! You’re only saying that because I called you out earlier.”

“No,” she corrected, and the boys stared, “I’m saying that because you have been absolutely useless up to this point. You tried to interrupt the questioning right before we got the information we needed. That jeopardizes not only what we’re doing here but the entire mission.” 

My stomach dropped. All of that was technically true. “Well, okay, in my defense, he seemed innocent.”

“Just stop fighting,” Jackson sighed. “I’ll handle it.”

I had no objection with this. Frankly, Jackson had been more useless than me, so it only made sense. All he really did was sit there and then wander around. If he was going to do that, he could at least be taking the criminal back to New York while doing it. 

Jackson left to rent a car, and we all milled around Kevin’s house awkwardly for a short time. 

“Girls,” Antonio eventually said to me. “They’re a mystery.” Romanoff was back in Johnson’s bedroom, so we were free to gossip as much as we pleased. 

“Are you talking about Romanoff and I’s argument?” 

“What, you mean this one specifically, or the one that’s been going on basically since you met each other?”

“Yeah, I get it. No need to remind me.”

“Well, we can’t all be perfect,” he responded playfully, and I raised an eyebrow. 

“For the thousandth time, she hates you, too,” I reminded him. 

“Hm. For now.”

I laughed and shook my head. The idea of them together felt so wrong to even consider. Not sure why, but it repulsed me. 

Some time later, Romanoff still had not exited the bedroom. There was not too much excitement to be had in the room, leaving her choice to remain secluded in the area a mystery. Overwhelmed with curiosity, I peaked through the door, cracked slightly open. I could catch her with ease, her bright red hair forcing her to stick out. She was sitting on the bed, silent. Her pondering expression was present, indicating deep thought. Thought of what, I wondered. Whatever it was, it seemed to be occupying her. Probably nothing important.


	9. a productive day

With Jackson on his way back to New York, we began plotting what next to do. We had the location of another scientist, and it was fairly close. We decided on taking a taxi. 

Traveling in a taxi was difficult with four muscular adults, so we had to split up. Two and two. Orion suggested girls and boys pair up, and I didn’t want to object and make things difficult. I could tell Romanoff wasn’t thrilled with the arrangement either, but it was time for us to both be professionals. 

When we piled into the first taxi we saw, the driver asked, “Where are you ladies headed?” She gave a general area a small distance from where we needed to go. I noted how impressive it was that she just knew things like that. I thought back to what Antonio had said about our skill sets. Mine had been science, which made sense. His was combat, Jackson’s was computers. What had he said for Romanoff? Just experience. Basically, she was just good at everything. 

The driver was chatty. “What’re your names?”

“I’m Natalie. This is my...friend, Jane.”

“What are you in town for?”

“She’s getting married.” I stared at her. 

“Congratulations!” He looked at me through his mirror, and I smiled. 

“Thanks, I’m so excited,” I replied, holding my grin tightly. 

“How long have you been together?”

“Uhhh...well, it feels like forever...” I said, not thinking of a lie. 

“You look so young, how old are you?”

“Oh, I’m twenty six.” That was the truth. 

“Natalie, are you a bridesmaid?”

“She’s my maid of honor,” I clarified. “Actually, she’s my best friend. Natalie,” I turned to her, and Romanoff stared at me, her face cold, “do you want to give him a preview of your speech?”

“I don’t have it memorized,” she stated awkwardly. 

“Oh, come on, just a little bit?” I persisted. 

“No.”

The cab went quiet, the driver picking up on some of the tension. Even if it had made the taxi driver uncomfortable and even a little suspicious of us, seeing Romanoff uncomfortable was infinitely funny to me. As we exited, he said, “Good luck! Have fun!”

“Huh?” 

“With your wedding?”

“Oh! Yeah!” I had almost forgotten. “Uh, thanks!”

A bit confused, he drove away. We walked quietly together, me following her lead. I had no idea where I was going, but somehow, she did. 

“Why did you put me on the spot like that?” she demanded after a few minutes. 

I smiled. “Hey, you put me on the spot too. It was funny. You should’ve just gone with it.” She didn’t respond, so I continued, “You really couldn’t think of one nice thing to say about me?”

“No, I couldn’t. And you almost blew it with your forgetfulness at the end of the ride. If he was a Hydra agent, we would be dead right now.”

“Oh, right, I forgot about how notable Hydra is for dangerous taxi driving activity. Their biggest threats to the country are illegal weapons, terrorism, and taxi driving.”

“I’m not saying he’s a dangerous taxi driver, Moore. I’m saying he could have been undercover.”

“Jesus, you’re so paranoid,” I sighed. 

“You two seriously can’t even ride in a taxi quietly together?” Antonio interrupted, approaching us from behind. I hadn’t noticed him arriving, too busy arguing with Romanoff. He had his nice moments, but I seriously did not want to deal with him right now. 

We agreed to overwhelm this man as well despite the fact that we were less afraid than last time. Jason, I think was this man’s name. Terrifying. 

With a powerful kick to the door, we infiltrated the house quickly. He was sitting at his table, reading the paper, his eyes wide with shock upon our arrival. Romanoff grabbed him roughly, pinning him against the wall with ease. He was easily half a foot taller than her, but she still had no visible issue at all with handcuffing him and throwing him against his sofa, likely for brief questioning. Something in my stomach dropped again upon seeing her do this. Nerves? Probably. But why was I nervous?

Then it came again, when she leaned over him. She said something quietly, almost a whisper, no emotion showing on her face. There was nothing to be nervous about, so it confused me. Romanoff was standing back up straight now, and she looked over, catching me staring. I narrowed my eyes at hers, this act somehow easing whatever thoughts she was spinning. Satisfied, she turned away from me. 

I chalked it up to being generally overwhelmed with this project. I had definitely been thrown into the deep end with this one. If I got assigned to something simple after this, it would feel infinitely boring in comparison. Well, that was assuming I would not be dead or fired by the end of this. 

Jason offered nothing useful. He broke much easier at the mention of being ratted on by Kevin. If I recalled correctly, we had promised to protect his identity. Romanoff had spun this lie so effortlessly that I didn’t question it at all. Evidently, neither did Kevin. Even after the admission of his involvement, the new scientist still contributed no new knowledge to our already limited supply. With this disappointment, we planned our return to New York. 

It was okay, Orion assured us. Just a little bump in the road. We had a lot to be proud of ourselves for. We were going to get further with this somehow. I wasn’t sure if I believed him. We were hitting a lot of dead ends really early on. His little pep talk felt more for himself than for us. 

“SHIELD will send a helicopter for us,” Romanoff stated, reentering the room after getting off a call with Fury. She spoke about it like it was just another Tuesday for her. It was a bit odd that Orion hadn’t contacted the director. But maybe it wasn’t, what did I know?

They picked us up about two miles away. Every day, it bewildered me a little bit more how little people at SHIELD trusted anyone. That must be an exhausting way to live. 

The unsteady trembling of the helicopter as it took off made me gasp nervously, clinging to my seat. Nope, I hated that. Antonio laughed a little, and I couldn’t quite tell if it was the ‘laugh with’ or the ‘laugh at’ kind. He had chosen to sit next to me, and we held our stare at each other a little longer than comfortable. 

“I don’t meet a lot of girls with hair like yours,” he commented. It was true that some days I worried would be mistaken for a man. 

“Just stop,” I sighed. I was unsure if it was a compliment or vaguely misogynistic comment coming from him, and I didn’t care to find out. 

“I was going to say it’s nice,” he replied defensively. “It’s unique.”

My mind whirred into action at the compliment. Many girls thought rude guys were cute. I didn’t necessarily find it unattractive, so that wasn’t what was holding me back. 

The man we had arrested was crunched between two SHIELD agents, and a third was piloting the vehicle. They likely had no idea what we were doing out here, their only orders to pick us up and bring us home. They probably didn’t ask. Romanoff and Orion were across from Antonio and I, and for long periods of time, the only sound filling the air was the relentless beating of the helicopter against the sky. 

I didn’t mind it that way. Every now and then, we would hit turbulence. My body would lean into Antonio, pressed against his side. I didn’t not enjoy it, I guess. He seemed to get a kick out of it. 

I went so back and forth with him so quickly, unsure if I trusted or liked him. I decided on settling on liking him, recognizing he had a lot (like, a lot) of flaws. So did I, so did everyone. 

Part of being an adult was the transition period out of being a child. It happened when you left for college, striking independence for the very first time. Then, it came again leaving school forever and entering the real world. This felt like the real departure. 

My entire life up to this point, my future had felt like such a distant idea. I had vague ideas for it sewn together: medicine, science, work. It marched on without hitch through my Harvard education, and then medical school came. The path had faltered about two years into that. After that small stumble, I researched where else I could use my science knowledge outside of becoming a surgeon. That’s where SHIELD and I first encountered. 

I needed some form of graduate or medical school to keep up in the lab. They only wanted the best of the best, and for the first time in my life, I was far below this cutoff. This was a disappointing discovery. Then, there was the opportunity of becoming an agent. It would take years of training, but the pay and work looked rewarding. I never regretted decisions once I had made them. 

In all that time, I didn’t ever engage in a serious relationship. There were small things here and there, but nothing ever left me truly interested beyond just a few days. Now, I realized my future wasn’t just about work. I knew I didn’t want kids, and I wasn’t sure if marriage was practical anymore. Everything was so confusing. 

Some times, when I was thinking of something else, the urgency of our task would suddenly wash over me. If we didn’t figure this all out and put a stop to it, there could be men stronger than the Avengers. I wondered how Romanoff felt about this. She knew Captain Rogers personally, as a coworker. He was the only super soldier that I knew of. If their friendship changed her perspective on the situation, she never showed it. All I knew was that if we didn’t succeed soon, there would be death and grief all around the world. And that would be on us five.

We hit more turbulence, this time causing Antonio to lean onto me a bit. His size was much greater than mine, and he was doing little to minimize the dead weight pressing against me. I grunted, shoving him back, noticing he had dozed off. This made sense; peeking out the window near me, the clear night sky shimmered around us. At such a high altitude, there was little pollution. The stars were breathtakingly clear. 

Orion looked tired too, but I couldn’t tell if he had fallen asleep. Romanoff was wide awake, though. Her alertness revealed no trace of exhaustion. 

“Romanoff,” I whispered quietly. Her eyes snapped over to me. 

“What?”

“Are you not tired?” I asked. “It looks like we’re the only ones up.”

“I never fall asleep with someone else awake in the room,” she responded. I thought she would elaborate, but she did not. 

I wanted to call her some insult at this, but I was too tired to think of it. It had been a long, productive day. I leaned against the back of my seat to sleep rather than against Antonio. 

What an exhausting way to live, I thought again. If the typical SHIELD agent had little trust in people, Romanoff had less. I guessed that even after I fell sleep asleep she would still remain vigilant. She would probably rationalize, ‘One of my sleeping coworkers could plot to betray me. I need to stay alert.’


	10. no more luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took forever Ive been swamped with schoolwork and this was a bit of a long one! :-)

Our good luck had dried up completely. At first, it appeared like just a bump, but now, it felt like for end of the road. We had nothing. The scientists had nothing more to provide information-wise, and they were all we had. After we had gotten off the helicopter, we agreed to take the rest of the day off and reconvene the next day. Entering work was tense. 

“We need to seriously consider returning to our original location,” Orion stated. Collectively, we groaned. That sounded dangerous and horrible. Additionally, our leader elaborated that there would be no way we could all go. Even the first time we had attempted had been clunky and disorganized, and we had quickly descended into chaos. For efficiency and the best chance of stealth, it would have to be a smaller group this time. 

“I’ll go,” Antonio volunteered. 

“No. You got shot on our first night.” I had completely forgot about that. I looked at him, and he was already looking at me. Now that I thought about it, he did typically sit with a bit of an odd slouch. He never strained the area that he had been wounded in. Still, he never really talked about it. 

There was something so alluring about this job that I couldn’t quite place. I imagined returning home with respect from all of the SHIELD agents. That was the polar opposite of my situation now, but all it would take to achieve would be completing this simple task. “I’ll go,” I volunteered. It was like the words came out of someone else. 

Romanoff immediately said, “No, that’s suicide.”

“Says you. I would be fine. I did it once already.” Even I knew this was a stretch. The first time, the three boys had been there. And she had been there. 

“You will definitely die," she stated. 

“And you care because...?” I don’t know what I expected her to say. 

“Because,” she stopped herself, evaluating her words, “a death on the mission will look bad. For me.”

“This has gone on too long,” Orion interjected. “You two need to stop being children about this. Romanoff, Moore, apologize to each other.”

I waited for her to do so first, crossing my arms expectantly. Evidently, she was also waiting for me. Antonio and Jackson’s eyes darted between us like watching a tennis match. I wondered how long this would go on before she caved. Probably forever. That’s fine, I could wait that long, too. 

“I have the power to fire you both,” he threatened. Still, neither of us budged. It wasn’t even about the job anymore. Now, it was just about holding my ground. If I cracked on this, it would signify to her that she had the ability to walk all over me. With every passing second, Orion got a exponentially more irritated with us. 

“I’m very disappointed in both of you.”

“Sir,” Antonio interrupted, and I stared at him, confused. “why don’t you just send Agent Romanoff with Agent Moore? They can just look out for each other. And, as a bonus, we don’t have to deal with them,” he joked. Half-joked. 

“That will work, Agent Gomez.” Romanoff would never concede like this, I noted. Taking orders from someone beneath them was weak leadership.

Still, we went through the plan that Antonio originated. We arrived by helicopter again about a mile away from the base in a different direction. 

We walked the distance without a word. Her uniform had an alteration that differed from mine, a thin, glowing blue line that on her side spanned from her ankle to her neck. It curved along with her body. I wondered what the functionality of that was. 

The first guard we encountered was a short distance away from the location, and Romanoff took care of him with ease. After this, they came sparsely. She had almost a relaxation about her when she was in combat. She seemed so tense around our group, but when she was fighting, it looked much more natural. I tried to help where I could, but at times, it seemed safer to just stay out of her way. 

The way that she moved was so hypnotizing. She didn’t just do the traditional punches and kicks, instead incorporating dozens of moves I had never even seen before. Additionally, her primary goals wasn’t just to disarm or kill. Often, she would first focus on debilitating her target, like by breaking a bone. It was quicker this way, since it made the enemy vulnerable. 

“You’re incredible at this,” I complimented, not thinking about my words. I couldn’t stand her, but objectively, it was very impressive. 

“Thanks.”

Did we just have a non-argument conversation? Ew, it felt wrong. “The way you go about it is a little gruesome, though,” I added, putting the universe back in balance. “The screaming bothers me.”

“It used to bother me, too,” she quietly responded. Honestly, I had expected her to tell me to shut up or focus, so I was left confused. Snapping back into monotone, she stated, “Okay, we need a plan of attack before we breach. Security is definitely going to be high.”

“Right,” I agreed. “So where do we go?”

“The labs. You have room to carry findings, right?”

“Yes.” I had pockets all over. She only had one to two. Her uniform was special. Avengers privileges. “Then what? Do you think they have a database?”

“We shouldn’t sequester ourselves in the basement again. Let’s scan the ground floor and above for some kind of computer room.”

“I don’t know anything computers, I can’t help with that.”

“I figured that,” Romanoff bluntly replied. “I do.”

With a loose plan formed, we continued to the building, now visible in the distance. Approaching in a lightly guarded area, we had little difficulty getting inside. Our goal was to move with stealth. 

A few minutes into the building, we had only had brief encounters with resistance inside. Frequently, they came in groups of four or five at once. In these situations, Romanoff would take on three or four at a time, and I helped where needed. I was beginning to feel like I was of little importance to this operation. There were about ten people guarding the first lab. We observed silently from around a corner. 

“You take the three on the left, I’ll get the seven on the right,” she breathed, as quiet as humanly possible. 

“Are you sure? I— okay, then.” She ran to approach them in the middle of my words, and I trailed quickly behind her. Gunshots rang rapidly, and Romanoff had already defeated around five in around twenty second. I watched out of the corner of my eye as I fought, mostly concerned she would get shot and I would have to drag her around. 

It wasn’t as natural for me. The man I set my focus on was significantly taller and larger than me, and it took everything I had to get the gun off of him. If I got shot, that would be so embarrassing. And, you know, painful. Then, I took a page out of Romanoff’s book, breaking his arm against my leg and using this moment of vulnerability to slam him against the man next to him. An incredible high washed over me as I immediately turned to the third person. I felt invincible. 

Before I could even begin, Romanoff thrusted her wrists into his neck, a blue wave of electricity flowing through his body. “Oh my god!” I screamed, startled. She pulled back and he fell limply to the ground. “Is he dead?”

“What was that pin again?”

“Romanoff, what did you just do?”

“I think it was...” she punched in the digits, and the green light flashed, signifying she had guessed correctly. “What was that?” She turned to me. 

“I thought you didn’t have any powers?”

“Wha—oh, you mean these,” she realized, flashing her arm. Wrapped just above her wrist was some sort of weapon. “They emit strong electric shocks.”

“Why do you have them?”

“They’re custom made. Just for me,” she explained. She wasn’t being polite, but she wasn’t being rude either. It was like when we were on a mission I was speaking to an entirely different person. 

The lab outside the door was “Lab - 1,” I noticed. This laboratory was much more sleek looking than the haphazard one we had infiltrated miles away. Everything looked more professional - and expensive. Sitting in the center of the room was a long table, lines with a few microscopes, tools, and liquids. 

“I wonder which of these are ingredients and which are products,” Romanoff thought out loud. I examined under one of the microscope lenses, finding a glass sheet. In this was a green-tinted liquid. 

“The green ones are the products.” She nodded, and I sifted through the drawers, looking for vials and caps. In every drawer seemed to be a new array of expensive tech. “The budget for this place must be insane,” I commented, pulling out a bottle. The label read, ‘HF Waste - Dispose With Caution.’ “I mean, what do they need with all these acids?”

“That’s up for the scientists to figure out,” she mumbled, rummaging around. Eventually, I struck the vials, hastily collecting multiple samples. 

“I wonder who they would use it on.”

“What?” Now her annoyance was starting to kick back in, the adrenaline from the fighting wearing down. Soon, someone would catch word that we were in here, and then we would have to fight our way back out of the lab. 

“Like, if they finished the serum,” I elaborated. “Who do you think they would use it on?”

“I don’t know, but I probably wouldn’t want to be friends with them.” She paused. “Do you have everything you need?”

“I do.”

“Then let’s go.”


	11. the computer room

There was an abrupt banging against the door, and chattering echoed through the halls. My heart dropped, looking at Romanoff quickly. She seemed unfazed. 

She didn’t check if I was ready, just marched back to the door and prepared to open it. I pulled out my gun and took a deep breath. We were immediately met with half a dozen armed men, and this time, Romanoff struck with her weapon right away. I shot at the nearest man, but his bulletproof vest immediately deflected my shots. Quickly, I was on the defensive, on the verge of being overpowered. These guys did not come to play. I heard a grunt from Romanoff, and I looked over. Worried about her safety, I watched as she fought two large men at once. She was holding her own fine. 

However, I wasn’t. Using my moment of distraction, my enemy quickly knocked me down. 

I screamed in surprise, and he kicked me in the face. No match for the firm material, my nose crunched against his shoe. Overwhelmed with surprise and pain, I was frozen. I was nearly blinded by the tears that had welled up in my eyes. He pulled out a gun. This was it for me, I couldn’t get out of this one. I was going to die.

A thin arm wrapped around the man’s neck area from behind, kicking. He yelled, stepping away from me, still on the floor. I backed away like a scared animal, eyes wide. The floor was scattered with other fallen enemies. Romanoff wrestled with the final one, and he wrangled her off of him. He swung, she ducked. Their fight looked choreographed, much more talented. She kicked, his gun fell. He swung again, striking her. He struck again. 

“Romanoff!” I yelled, terror washing over me as he hit her again. And again. In the chaos, his helmet had fallen. The lab door was still open. I had an idea. 

Shakily standing to my feet, I reentered the much quieter room we had been in minutes ago. Reopening the drawer I had previously examined, I pulled out the container. My feet moved on their own as though someone else were controlling my movements. Pop off the lid. Run back outside. Reach him while he’s still focused on Romanoff. Fling the liquid at his exposed head. 

When he hit the ground, Romanoff and I turned to each other. Her lip was busted, there were already signs of bruising. It was surreal to see her so close to being defeated. It felt unnatural. “What...?” she breathed, out of breath. I showed the the bottle, acidic waste. 

“I just panicked. I had no idea if it would work,” I admitted. Blood from my nose dripped down my cheek, and I touched it, surprised. I had honestly forgotten about that up until that point, the adrenaline suppressing my pain. “Sorry, he overpowered me.”

“When you ran away, I thought you were abandoning me.”

“That would be awful. If you hadn’t stepped in, he would’ve killed me.”

She nodded, and I dropped the now-empty bottle to the floor. “Now we’re even.” Digging through her pocket, she pulled out four flash drives. “These three can back up two terabytes each.” She pointed at three of them, each black. “...And this one can back up 128 gigabytes, in case we are in desperate need.” She held up the final one, decorate light pink with Hello Kitty on it. 

I laughed, pain flashing through my nose. “No, this might be an illegal operation, we can’t rope Hello Kitty into it.”

“Hello Kitty is a convicted felon,” she deadpanned, and I cracked up. She smirked, stepping over the last man’s body and walking down the hall. I had never heard her saying anything that wasn’t morbidly serious. Maybe it was the fact that she just saved my life, but she wasn’t as repulsive as usual right now. Even when she was sweaty and exhausted, her hair was still perfectly bright and flat. 

The doors we passed were each labeled. There were many ‘Experimentation,’ some ‘Physical Data.’ “Should we look in there?”

“No, anything that they have a paper copy of will be stored virtually as well.”

“What about experimentation?”

“Are you sure you want to look behind that door? You don’t know what’s back there.”

“You...do you think there are humans?” I nervously asked. 

“I mean, they’re gonna have to test it on people eventually.” She must have recognized how disturbing this thought was, because she continued walking, knowing I would not want to see that. “Besides, they’ll have progress reports online. You don’t need to see that.”

I noticed how she kept saying ‘you,’ as if she would be able to handle it and I wouldn’t. My defiance urged me to stay behind and search the room to prove her wrong, but a voice in my head reasoned, ‘She’s right, you can’t.’

I sighed, catching up with her. “You know, I thought we were getting along there for a bit, but you’re back to being condescending, I see.”

“I’m not being condescending, you just have no sense of how much you can handle.”

“Um, who saved your life back there? Me!” I reminded her. 

“It’s not as impressive if you keep bragging about it. Need I remind you that I handled five before I saved your life?”

“Ugh!” I groaned. Another odd habit of hers was never saying ‘person’ when referring to someone she had fought or killed. It was like she was speaking about a punching bag. “I wish Antonio was here. He would have something funny to say right now so I would be less tired of you.”

“Oh, it’s ‘Antonio’ now? Your best friend who sexually harasses you twice a day?”

My face heated up. “Don’t talk about him like that!”

“So you’re saying it’s not true?”

Reflecting on my interactions with my coworker, she wasn’t exactly wrong. “He doesn’t mean it like that, that’s just his personality. Besides, why do you even care?”

“I could not care less what you do.” The next door we encountered was labeled ‘Computing System.’ “Stand outside and keep watch.”

I gulped. “Okay. What if I need backup?”

“Well, I’ll be inside so...I guess you’ll die.” She seemed like she was partially joking, but I couldn’t really tell. She unstrapped the weapon on her arm, handing it to me. “Here, take these. Did you see how I used them?”

“Yeah, I think.”

“That’ll have to be good enough.”

“Wait, but I—“ Too late, she was already gone. My pulse quickened. It’s fine, I could totally handle this. I was trained for this. 

No, I can’t, I can’t handle this. Feet pounded around the corner as men approached. With shaky hands, I attempted to secure the bracelets. How did I even use them? I had never seen her press a button or anything. Breathe, I reminded myself.

They locked into place as the first guard became visible. The bracelets glowed a blueish white, and as soon as my fist made contact with his body, the electricity flowed out of them. He yelled, shocked, and fell. “Oh my god!” On one hand, I was thrilled it was that easy. On the other hand, I may have just killed a guy. “Oh my god!” I repeated. 

Repeating this twice more, it felt like I was fighting on easy-mode. When Romanoff re-emerged, clutching the flash drives, my fear was already gone. “Are you ready to go?” I asked her. There was something different about the way that she walked. Some of the ease was lacking as she shifted awkwardly in front of me. Her face was paler than when she entered. “Earth to Romanoff? What did you find in there?”

“We need to get out of here. Now.”

“Yeah, I could’ve told you that.”

“Give me those back,” she ordered, staring at the bracelets she had lended to me. Disappointed, I slid them off and handed them back to their owner. May we meet again, mysterious electricity thing. 

“Romanoff, you’re freaking me out. What was on that computer?”

“I’ll tell you on the way back,” she stated. Deciding that was good enough, I nodded. It didn’t matter much whether I agreed with this or not, it wasn’t like I could change her mind. She lead the way back out. “Call for SHIELD to come pick us up.”

“Ok.” Her natural authority was a little intimidating. 

It was as though she was escorting me out. At one point, she handed me the flash drives, and I stored them away along with the vials. She did the majority of the fighting, and I held the important materials. Romanoff didn’t seem to notice or mind that she had the harder job. 

Leaving was the same routine as entering. I wondered if the missions began to blend together for her. This job already felt reminiscent of our first day, and I had only been here for a few weeks. She said she had been an agent for, what, years? 

We were picked up by a truck. There was no mystery to the security or contents of the building anymore, so we gave them a reasonable distance and met them there. 

“I can take whatever materials you have for the lab and tech crew,” offered the driver. 

“That’s fine. We’re going to give them to Director Fury in person ourselves,” Romanoff interjected. The queen of being paranoid struck again. 

“Can I ask you something?” I asked hesitantly after a long period of quiet. It was dark outside, but she did not sleep. I remembered the policy that she had shared on the helicopter.

“You can ask, but I may not answer.”

“Alright, how did you get the ‘Black Widow’ nickname? Does everyone just get a superhero name when they join the Avengers?”

She smiled slightly, shaking her head. “No, it was a nickname for years, even before I joined SHIELD. Most assassins are large, strong, typically men. In comparison, I’m typically smaller and quicker. The Black Widow is a spider. It’s small and deadly. That’s where it comes from.”

I smiled in return. “You said before you joined SHIELD? What did you do then?”

Staying true to her word, I asked, and she did not answer.


	12. don’t trust anyone

Romanoff and I were the first ones to arrive the next day. “Hey, I forgot to ask you last night about what you found.”

She blinked. “Oh. Right. I mean, it’s impossible to be sure about anything until after it is analyzed, so I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”

“Ladies!” Antonio greeted, entering. “I see you’re both alive. I’m a little proud of you.”

“Your approval is all I’m after,” Romanoff sarcastically responded. She just really hated him, didn’t she? I wasn’t sure anymore where she stood with me. It definitely didn’t feel as hostile. 

“How did it go?” he asked, turning to me.

“It went well. Romanoff did most of the difficult work,” I admitted. 

“Don’t sell yourself too short.”

“Oh, um, thanks,” I awkwardly responded. He glanced between both of us, taking a seat next to me. 

“Sooo...what did you find? Lay it on me. It’s Hyrda, isn’t it?” he asked. 

Romanoff narrowed her eyes. “You shouldn’t just say things like that. Officially, Hyrda is gone. Don’t you think SHIELD would have noticed if they made a comeback?”

“If Hyrda is gone, why do you guys keep talking about it?” I asked. 

“It’s like when you find a rat in your house,” Romanoff explained. “You kill the rat and   
set some traps, but you still are nervous any time there’s a sign there are more.”

Antonio nodded. “I’m just saying, some signs may point to them...or something like them. I don’t know, what do I know? Anyways, what did you bring back.”

“We brought samples of their current product, and Romanoff backed up as much as she could of their information,” I explained. 

“I didn’t get much. I only had a few gigabytes of storage, and I didn’t anticipate how much information there would be,” Romanoff added. “And Moore had to sacrifice one of our samples.”

“What?” That didn’t happen. 

“Yeah, you dumped one on someone to get him off of me. So we only got away with, what, two?”

All I said was, “Oh.” That definitely wasn’t how it went down. And she knew that. 

“That was dumb. Why didn’t you just, like, kick him?” Antonio asked. 

“I guess I just didn’t think of it. He was pretty tall, too, and he had already beaten me up pretty good.” Agent Jackson and Agent Orion entered, and I breathed a sign of relief. 

“I apologize for running a bit late. I brought our analysis.” He dropped a typed packet onto the table. Romanoff grabbed it first, scanning it over. While she read, Orion continued, “Let’s start with the serum.” He paused. “It’s moving along faster than we thought. We estimate a short amount of time before completion.”

Jackson sighed, his face falling into his hands. Romanoff’s face remained unchanged, equally serious as moments before. I turned to Antonio, and he was already looking at me. ‘Yikes,’ he mouthed. I nodded. 

“There’s more.” Romanoff’s eyes flickered up to Orion as he continued. “There are elements of their solution that we can no longer identify. These are repeated in each sample that was brought.”

“So they have the wrong ingredients? That’s a good thing, right?” Antonio suggested. 

“No, it’s not that. We don’t know what some of the ingredients are at all. They aren’t just making the super soldier serum anymore.”

“What are they making?” I asked quietly. 

“...Something else,” he responded. I understood that we still had literally no idea. 

“This may be a dumb question, but why can’t we just, like, send a bunch of Stark bombs and blow it up?” I suggested. Anotnio smiled at my wording. 

“No,” Romanoff interrupted. We all turned to her. Slowly, out of her pocket, she pulled out the Hello Kitty flash drive. Recounting our escape, I only remember receiving the larger ones. She was sneaky. “I was going to give this to Fury. I just wanted to see what was on it first.”

“You withheld information from your superior?” Orion asked, not happy. 

“Yes.” I blinked. It was dead silent. “But you’re going to be glad I did.” She pulled out a computer, plugging in the flash drive. She pushed the computer to an angle where we could all see it, revealing a video ready to be played. It was titled ‘Congratulations!’ She clicked play. 

“Congratulations!” a computerized voice read. The screen was black. “By accessing this video, you prove you have successfully infiltrated Base 1. This is not an easy task — but it will not be the hardest!” Antonio and I caught each other’s eye, and he shrugged. Glad I’m not the only one completely lost, I thought. 

“By this point, you have most likely mistaken our intentions to be a threat to the well-being of the people. We have proven otherwise by keeping our distance. We have the means to do damage, but we do not.”

“Pause it,” Agent Orion ordered. Romanoff obeyed. “Did you run this through voice recognition?”

“It’s not a modified voice. Just a computer,” she responded. He nodded, and she pressed play. 

A video flashed on the screen, scientists titrating a solution to equilibrium. It was taken where Romanoff and I had been just a little while ago. Their faces were not visible. “SHIELD has assigned their best on this mission. And four others! Natasha Romanoff, we’re honored.” 

“Pause,” Orion repeated. 

“Yes, sir.” Romanoff clicked the screen, stopping the video again. 

“The computer’s got jokes,” Antonio mumbled. 

“How did they know—“

“I miss before the Chitauri attack,” Romanoff sighed. “Now, everyone thinks we’re on a first-name basis.”

“Alright, Natasha,” Orion said. She shot him a cold look. “Continue.”

“Our mission is to bring peace to the world in a time where it has never been more unstable. We would appreciate if SHIELD allowed us to work without more disruptions. If you cannot agree to these conditions, expect further resistance. This applies to not just Base 1, but all other locations around the world.”

“Pause.”

“No need. It’s over.” She shut the computer. “See why I didn’t want to turn it over?”

“No, I frankly do not, Agent.”

She huffed, crossing her arms. “I think we need to consider the fact that we should involve as few outside scientists and analysts as possible going forward, sir. We are at a disadvantage. They know who we are, and we don’t know who they are.”

Orion nodded. “They mentioned having more bases. Let’s start figuring out possibilities of where these could be.”

“I can put together an algorithm tonight. It’ll map out the countries that SHIELD has interacted with the least since the New York attack. If something like this has gone unnoticed, it’ll be in a place like that,” Jackson volunteered. 

“We need better than that. Pinpoint one city out of each country,” Orion replied. 

“How many?”

“Five cities.”

“I can do four,” Jackson offered. 

Romanoff pocketed flash drive on the way out. Maybe she would give it to a director or analyst. Maybe she wouldn’t. “Agent Moore, can I talk to you?”

“Uhhh, yeah, sure.” Antonio raised his eyebrows, half-smiling. 

“See you tomorrow,” he said, touching my arm. His hand lingered before he walked away, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. 

“Why did you lie to Antonio earlier?” I asked as soon as the others had left. “It was very unnecessary, and honestly, whether you like him or not, he’s our teammate.”

“Just because he’s our teammate does not mean I trust him.”

“Who cares if you trust him or not? Do you lie to the Avengers?”

“When I have to, yes. There’s really nothing personal about it,” she stated. 

“Well, maybe people would trust you more if you trusted them,” I suggested. 

“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” she snapped. “You may not be as bad of an agent as I originally thought you were, but you still have a very long way to go. The best advice I have ever been given was not to trust anyone, ever.”

“What did you need to say to me?” I sighed. She wasn’t exactly wrong, it wasn’t really my place to be giving her advice. 

“I was going to tell you that there’s more information than just what I handed over and the video,” she revealed. “Orion was right, they’re moving along and have created their own, more dangerous version of the serum. However, what he doesn’t know is that they have started testing it on humans. I found that information after I had already loaded the other drives to their capacity.”

“What does that mean for us?”

“It‘s just another benchmark to tell us that they’re getting closer, more confident, and that they eventually do plan to use this on people.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I realized how often I asked her questions, suddenly hoping I didn’t come across as annoying. 

“It’s never good to be the only person in the world that knows something. What if I die?” she explained. “Also, if I had to guess, you and I will most likely be paired together to search whatever cities Jackson wrangles.”

“Oh, fun. I hope we’re going to Disney World,” I joked. She smiled. 

“Yeah, something like that. I’m going home.”

“I’ll stay a bit. I want to read that report.” It was still sitting on the table. Romanoff nodded understandingly and wordlessly turned. 

Her heels clicked against the floor as she distanced herself from the room. I wondered where ‘home’ was for her.


	13. flight to belarus

“Before I share the cities, I think we should discuss the legitimacy and the safety of this plan,” Jackson suggested the next morning. I clicked a pen mindlessly. “First of all, why would they tell us they have more locations around the world if they didn’t want us to go looking for it?”

“Who cares if they want us to or not?” Antonio replied. “We have to find them.”

“Okay, fine, but what about the original base—Base 1?”

“There’s no reason we should allow it to continue to exist. We know as much about it as we need to know,” Romanoff suggested. 

I glanced over at Antonio. He smiled at me warmly. He had a nice smile. Very...bright? I don’t know, what do people compliment about smiles? He had white teeth, and they were all straight. That was nice. I smiled back after a moment. 

Orion stated, “If all of your concerns have been addressed, Agent Jackson, why don’t you share with us the cities you came up with?” 

Jackson remained reluctant, but still pulled out his phone. “Okay, so first we have Myadzel, Belarus. Then, Floresto, Moldova. I think those two should go to Romanoff and Moore, if you two don’t mind.”

We locked eyes with each other. She had been right. “I think we can handle it,” she agreed. 

“Great. That leaves us with Sokovia and Estonia.”

I didn’t want to admit that I had never even heard of that first country. I had heard of the others, but I had definitely never been there. I still had my fake ID from our last trip, and we worked together to form a general plan for both groups. 

On the way out, Romanoff stopped me. “If we’re traveling together, I’ll need your phone number.”

“Oh. Okay, that makes sense,” I agreed. 

“I’ll need it to. For traveling reasons. You know, official work stuff only,” Antonio spoke. I smiled. 

“You can have it, but don’t bug me when I’m off-duty.”

On my drive home, my phone buzzed. I checked when I got home. I’m going to regret giving it to Antonio, I thought. But no, it was a message from the contact that I had named ‘Romanoff.’ 

‘Don’t pack your SHIELD uniform. Just athletic clothes.’

‘I’ll just bring both,’ I replied. 

‘Just put your SHIELD ID in your wallet. Trust me.’

‘Ok.’

My flight was on the day after the next, so I spent the next day packing. Being partnered with Romanoff at Base 1 had instilled in me a newfound respect for her. She was a completely different person in those high pressure situations. I didn’t pack my SHIELD uniform, assuming she knew what she was talking about. 

After passing through security at the airport, I scanned through the crowd, looking for her. “You’re late.”

I jumped, turning to face her. “Jesus! I didn’t even hear you come up!”

“The flight leaves in fifteen minutes. I was worried you slept in,” she said, ignoring the fact that she startled me. 

“Is it really sleeping in? I mean it’s only,” I checked my watch, “five AM! How long have you been here?”

She ignored me again. “Come on, we can board. I’ve been waiting.”

We weren’t flying first class, to my disappointment. There was an airport in Belarus, so we wouldn’t have to do a layover. Romanoff and I sat next to each other. I had taken a backpack with me, considering the flight was going to be almost eleven hours long. 

“What did you bring?” she asked. I unzipped my bag. 

“I want to learn how to code,” I answered, showing her my book. “I also brought Carrie by Stephen King.”

“That’s one of my favorite movies,” she revealed. The thought of her watching a movie was so odd to me. She seemed like this mythical being, not a real human who did normal things. 

“Really? I love horror.”

“Me too!” She grinned. Without thinking, I smiled back brightly, looking back down at my lap. When she smiled, her eyes looked even greener. The skin next to one eye crinkled slightly more than the other. 

“I—“ My phone buzzed, interrupting me. I looked down, seeing a text from Antonio. 

‘Fly safe! Let me know when you get there! I’ll miss you.’

I stared at the message, sliding my phone back into my bag. Romanoff leaned back, and I pulled out my first book. 

After a significant period of time, filled with me trying to learn as much as I could about computers, she interrupted me. “I’ve found that the best way of learning is doing, honestly.”

“What?” I didn’t take my eyes off of the page. 

“Next time we need to, I can show you a little about coding if you’re really interested. There’s only so much you can learn from theoretical stuff.”

“Okay, how do you know how to do literally everything?” I dropped my book, looking up. She shrugged. 

“Not everything. I can’t...hmm...maybe I can do everything,” she concluded. I smiled again. There was definitely something different about her. 

“If I had known all it would take was dumping acid on a guy for us to be friends, I would have done it to Antonio on day one.” I doubted she would consider us friends. I doubted she would consider anyone friends. The lack of hatred towards me was enough for me, though. 

“If you do that now, I’ll marry you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, no. For the next week, we’re not talking about your hatred of Antonio, and I won’t talk about us being friends.” She shrugged in agreement. “Great! Then let’s get to the real heavy-hitting questions. Who’s your favorite Avenger?”

She smirked. “Hm. That’s tough. In terms of powers or personality?”

“I don’t know. Is the answer separate? If it’s different, then both.” 

“Okay, for powers, I think Banner is probably the most helpful. Banner has a good personality too,” she replied thoughtfully. I scrunched my nose. 

“Oh, gross, are you two a thing?”

“No!” she immediately countered. “In fact, the only ones in a relationship are Stark, Thor, and Barton. I’m not sure where Steven stands, he’s got this old thing from the 40s he just can’t let go of, I guess.”

“What’s he like? Captain America, I mean. He seems...fun.”

We chatted for a little while longer, discussing the Avengers. She had much to say, many funny stories to tell (it took Captain Rogers an hour to learn how to use a microwave—the buttons are literally labeled). A bit later, I attempted to squeeze out a little about her family and life from her, but she once again would not budge. 

“What about you? Where did you grow up?” she diverted. 

“I grew up in Ohio. I have a brother, he’s a real estate agent. I have two parents. Nothing exciting, sorry to disappoint,” I replied, hoping I wasn’t too underwhelming. She seemed interested, despite the fact that I had said nothing interesting. 

“How old is your brother?”

“Twenty three,” I answered. “Three years younger than me.” I thought for a moment. “How old are you?”

“Twenty nine.”

I had figured she was around that age, so this came as no surprise. 

The rest of the flight went about this way. At one point, I took a nap. She didn’t, of course. I read some more, making my way through my second book. We chatted a bit more about nothing useful to pass time. When the sun began to set around us and our touchdown time approached, I had barely noticed the flight pass by. 

Our plan had been to take a taxi from the airport to our city, but the ride would be another two hours, and we had luggage. We rethought this plan, instead deciding to stay in a hotel near the airport for the night and make the drive in the morning. 

At the nearest hotel lobby, Romanoff approached the desk. She spoke in what I could only assume was Russian, and they responded merrily, most likely able to help us. Romanoff was handed a key, and she lead the way to an elevator. 

“I didn’t know you could speak Russian,” I said. “I’m not surprised, but still.”

“You know I’m Russian, right?” she chuckled. “‘Natasha Romanoff’ is the Americanized version of my name.”

“Well, what’s the real version?”

“Natalia Romanova.” The way she spoke this rolled off of her tongue much more gracefully than English. It felt so natural and elegant. I suddenly wished I could speak Russian to sound just like that. 

She clicked the door open, immediately pausing in place. “Move, I want to put my bags down!” I exclaimed. When she shuffled aside, I saw the problem. 

“What, do you not have a word for ‘two beds’ in Russian?” I asked, annoyed. There was only one bed in the room, and there were two of us. 

“Stop being a baby. I’ll just sleep on the chair,” she muttered. 

“Okay, because this is your own fault for not being specific enough. You forfeited your right to bed privileges.”

She stole a pillow from the bed, tossing it on the chair in the corner. After clicking off the lights, she wordlessly sat. If she thought I was going to offer to share or take her place, she was dead wrong. I was perfectly happy taking up the entire bed while she suffered. When I peaked over to the chair, she was still wide awake, staring at the floor. 

I sighed. “I’m going to bed now, which means you can, too. Goodnight, Romanoff.”

“Goodnight, Moore.”


	14. exploring the city pt. 1

I woke up the next morning, checked the time. 9:26. I groaned. I had slept in. Romanoff is going to be such a—

“Oh, you’re finally up,” Romanoff’s voice sang from behind me. I turned, and she was wide awake, standing in the door. “Great. I was worried you were in a coma.”

“You could have just woken me up, you know,” I sighed, getting out of bed. She shrugged, and I pulled out my outfit for the day. “What’s the plan?”

“Let’s rent a car. We can just drive around, survey the city. We’re looking for a big building with many workers, it shouldn’t be hard to miss.” 

I nodded. “What about our luggage?”

“Let’s just leave it here for now. We can come grab it later, take it to the airport tonight.” 

Romanoff drove. I was in the passenger side. The city was simple, pretty. We were somewhat aimless. “Have you been here before?” I asked. A few times, she had murmured something to herself like ‘not this way,’ and ‘where are we again?’ 

“Yes,” she replied. “Not this exact town, but to Belarus. Honestly, it’s almost the same as most of Russia. A lot of Europe is similar.”

“Is it nice? Russia? I’ve never been. I didn’t travel a lot as a kid,” I explained. 

“It’s alright,” she replied. “I’m biased, it’s my home. I’m sure most people would tell you it’s nothing special, but I like it a lot.”

“Do you miss it? I miss my home sometimes.”

“No, I don’t miss it.”

“Do you...miss your family?” It was worth a try. I wanted to trust her, or even be friends with her, but that wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t know her. She glared at me.

“I don’t have a family.”

“Do you have friends there?” I probably should just leave it alone, I thought. But no. Now I was in, and I was too stubborn to back off. 

“I don’t miss anything, if that’s what you’re trying to get me to say. I don’t get attached.”

Suddenly, I felt a little guilty. I wasn’t sure how to word my next question. “Is...Are there people out there that force you to keep secrets? Like, is there a reason you can’t tell people anything?”

She readjusted her grip on the steering wheel. “I keep those secrets because I want to. I keep a lot of secrets because I have to. It’s a mixture. The point is, if the only thing you want to talk to me about is the subject I can’t speak on, then I can’t help you.”

It hit me how incredibly lonely it must be to be Natasha Romanoff. Everyone she knows, even those she considers close, constantly pester her for classified intel or SHIELD secrets. I made a mental note never to bug her over this when I didn’t need to again. How isolating that would be, to keep so many secrets.

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” She didn’t say anything. “Actually I do have another question.”

She sighed heavily. “What?”

“Is your hair real? I’ve never seen hair that red before, and I thought red hair got darker with age.”

She relaxed a bit. “It’s real. I’ve thought about dying it to blend in, but I don’t think I ever will. It’s like my signature. When people see my red hair, even from far away, they know it’s me.”

“I like that. When people see me from far away, they usually think I’m a man. I guess it’s the way I walk, or my hair.”

She smirked. “You thought I was a man at Base 1, remember?”

I blushed, embarrassed. “I still feel a little bad about that. It was nerves, I just didn’t really look at you. It was my first day.”

She laughed. “The whole time, you had this freaked out look on your face.”

“I did not!” I objected. 

“You did, you looked terrified. I thought you were going to pass out.”

“Stop,” I groaned. This was so humiliating. I didn’t think it went that badly. She found my embarrassment very funny, and my face fell into my hands. 

It felt like we had driven past every house in the country. There were hours of endless houses, each looking exactly the same. Romanoff was nothing if not thorough. We checked the same streets twice, we took every single backroad. We made sure each house looked normal, that there could be nothing suspicious inside them. 

I tried to turn on the radio for some kind o entertainment, but the local station only played songs in Russian, of course. At one point, Romanoff said, “I love this song!” and turned up the radio. She hummed along, tapping the steering wheel to the beat. 

After a few hours of tirelessly checking the area, she conceded. “If it was here, we would have found it by now. Plus, if we circle the same streets again, people will start to notice.” That was the last thing she wanted, for someone to notice she was out of place. 

“So, what now?” I asked. “Back to the hotel, and then the airport?” Our next flight was shorter, only two hours. 

“Yes, but there’s something else I want to do first,” she agreed. “There’s a bakery a short distance away from this city. It has a few locations, one that was close to where I grew up. I can drop you off at the hotel first, if you want.”

“No way, I want the authentic Russia-Belarus-Europe-ish experience,” I said. She nodded, redirecting the car to take us there. 

“I saw it on the map near Myadzyel when I was researching,” she confided. “I was excited to see it was still open.”

I leaned back and adjusted my seat. As she drove, I sat quietly, looking out the window. The weather wasn’t too bad, a little chilly for the spring. “My birthday is in a week. I wonder if we’ll be done by then.”

“Probably not.”

“Not with that attitude!” I said, joking. “When’s your birthday?”

“Late November. I think the 23rd? No the, the 22nd. I don’t really keep track, I never celebrated growing up and I still don’t now.”

I didn’t ask about it. “Late November, huh? So you’re a Scorpio.”

“I don’t really believe in that stuff.”

“I mean, I don’t know if I believe in it or not, but it’s interesting. I’m an Aries.” 

We chatted for a bit longer, and she eventually slowed to a stop. There was a small shop, clearly old. Romanoff hopped out of the car, a hint of excitement about her. It was sweet. 

She held the door for me, both of us taking in the environment at the same time. It was warm, small. There was a bench outside, and some tables inside. The food was stacked on a table, covered by glass. I didn’t recognize many of the products. “It looks just like I remember it,” she said quietly. 

“You’re going to have to order for me,” I admitted. “I have no idea what this stuff is or how to speak Russian.”

She approached the man working behind the counter, speaking to him on both of our behalf. When she returned, she had a small paper bag. 

Unloading its contents, we sat across from each other at a table. “This is a sushka.” She handed me a small treat, looking like a tiny bagel. “And then I got some gingerbread, too.”

I wondered if she felt more comfortable speaking Russian than English. She had no trace of an accent, and spoke perfect English. She also had no trace of an American accent when she spoke Russian. “You should be, like, a tour guide or something if the Avengers gig doesn’t work out.”

“Hm. I’ll think about it,” she sarcastically responded. “I’m not really a people person, though.”

The drive back to the hotel felt short. The sun had begun to set. The airport was right next to our hotel. I wished we were flying somewhere more exciting than another obscure city. I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy about flying again. As we waited to board, my phone rang. Antonio. 

“Hang on, I’ll be right back.” She nodded. “Hello?” 

“Hey, how was day 1?” he asked. “We sure had an...eventful day.”

“Where were you?”

“Sokovia.”

“Oh, right. Never heard of it.”

“Yeah, it’s a dump. There’s something weird going on, there, though.”

“You found the big base?” I asked hopefully. 

“No, it’s not that. Something bigger. We already contacted Fury, they’re gonna create another team to investigate it. Jackson’s program is legit, but it gave us the wrong thing.”

“Oh. So we get to go home?” My hope rose once again. 

He laughed. “No, it just means we have to check these cities as well. Bummer. You guys didn’t have luck either?”

“No, nothing.”

“And you’re both still alive? You didn’t murder her in her sleep?”

“Hey, don’t say that. She’s not so bad, now that I’ve spent time with her. Actually, she’s pretty nice.”

“Um, whatever you say, I guess. I’m more into mean girls, but I’m sure she would still be rude to me.”

The more I spoke to him, the more I started to agree with Romanoff’s assessment of him. “Uh, alright. Well, I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay! I’ll miss you,” he said. It sounded like he meant it. 

I hesitated. “Um, yeah, okay, bye,” I hurriedly responded. A few days ago, I probably would have said ‘I miss you too.’ But that was a lie. I felt neutral about it. 

No, you miss him, I convinced myself. You miss him, you like him, you’re friends. He has an odd personality, but that’s cute in guys! Yeah, he’s cute, and he made you nervous.

I sat next to Romanoff in the flight. “I have an important question.”

“Oh, what’s that?” Her arm brushed against mine, since we were squeezed so close together. I noticed, pulling away. 

“You’re going to sleep on the flight, right? So can I borrow your copy of Carrie?” 

“Sure!”

Like a blink, I dozed off, and then reawakened. The flight was quiet, the hum of the plane and light chatter the only sounds. I looked to my side, and there was my partner. Her eyes were shut, and my book was rested on her lap. I had never seen her asleep before. She looked so peaceful. I wondered why she had been so exhausted. 

The flight landed. I pretended to sleep as Romanoff woke up. I already knew she would be upset for having slept at all, and if she knew I had been awake while she was not, she would be sent into a paranoid frenzy. I was really doing us both a favor. 

She admitted she didn’t speak a lot of Romanian. It was late. I was drowsy as we found a nearby hotel. “A room, please,” she asked in English. “Two beds.” 

I was glad she emphasized that. Luckily, they spoke English. They must get a lot of American tourists. 

I plopped my bags down on the floor, claiming a bed by flopping into it. Earlier, I had set an alarm on my phone for the next day. That way I wouldn’t sleep in again and endure Romanoff’s ridicule. 

“Goodnight, Natasha!”

I didn’t even think about the fact that I had just called her by her first name for the very first time.


	15. exploring the city pt. 2

The hotel was actually pretty nice. It had breakfasts, a gym, and a pool. “Where are we getting money for this?” I asked. 

“Company credit card.” We each had a free breakfast in the hotel lobby. I grabbed a bagel and a yogurt, and she had made herself a few pieces of toast. “The budget for this must be pretty high. We’ve done a lot of spending.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. I hadn’t really thought about it. “I hope something comes out of this trip. Antonio said they found something big in Sokovia.”

“There’s nothing in Sokovia,” Romanoff disagreed. “It’s completely destroyed.”

“Destroyed? Was there an earthquake?”

“No, just war,” she explained. “Either way, it’s not somewhere someone would go for fun. SHIELD would have noticed recent irregular travel in the area.”

“Well, they’re going to put together a team to look into it. You’ll probably be in it.”

“Not the first team. They’ll get a couple guys to scope it out, and if they think it’s serious, then they’ll send me in,” she guessed. 

It was odd how she spoke about herself here, like she was just a bomb they would drop. She didn’t seem to care. “Do you want to get sent in?”

“I’ve never really thought about it,” she admitted. “I guess not? I’m not sure. Why?” She never turned off her suspicion. 

“I was just wondering how I should respond. Should I be like oh, fun, good luck! Or oh, bummer, sorry to hear that.”

The corners of her lips turned up into a smile. “We shouldn’t be talking about this in public. What if someone overheard?”

I glanced around. There was a small family with two young children, speaking to each other in another language, and an older man eating alone. “I think we’ll be fine.”

We rented another car. I feel like that’s all we did these days. We reached Floresti. Same drill as the day before, we started driving aimlessly. A few miles in, Romanoff sucked in a sharp breath. 

“What?”

“Have we been here yet? That house looks familiar.” She nodded at one. I looked, and there was a tall tree in the front yard. “I swear I’ve seen that tree before.”

“I thought you said a lot of places in Europe looked similar.”

“I know we’ve passed that tree. We’ve been on this street.”

“Oh my god. Are we lost?”

“Um...” We were lost. It wasn’t like we could ask someone for directions, either. The ladies at the hotel desk may have spoken English, but the regular folks most likely would not. Where would we even ask to go? We didn’t even know where we were trying to go. 

“Just turn around and retrace your steps. Do you speak any languages similar to Romanian? Maybe if you just say a couple words, they’ll understand what we need.”

“No, I can get us back. I don’t need to do that,” she rejected. I huffed. 

She took a few more turns, and we were even more lost than before. “Just swallow your pride and pull over. There’s a lot of people here.”

“If I can just find that tree again, I think I can get us back to the center of the town.”

“For the love of God, you’re wasting our time!” I exclaimed, frustrated. She glared at me. 

“Stop whining!” she snapped. I rolled my eyes. 

“It’s not whining, it’s having common sense. Why don’t you pay attention to the roads if you’re the driver? Then we wouldn’t be lost in the first place.”

“I am paying attention to the roads, I just—look!” She pointed ahead, and there was the house with the big tree. We had made it back here, somehow. “I told you so.”

“Shut up.”

It was odd, but this fight didn’t feel as hostile as some in the past. There had been times where I wanted to reach over and slap her, but right now, I didn’t feel any residual resentment. 

True to her word, she was able to direct us back to the center of town from that house, and we took a different path than before. 

“Are there any fun activities you would like to do here?” I asked hopefully. “I would be very much open to that.”

“No. This town is boring.”

“Yeah, I could’ve told you that. Is it weird that I wish we had gone to Sokovia? We probably would have encountered something there, at least.”

“Where are the boys today?” 

“Estonia,” I answered. “I don’t think they’ll find anything, though. This trip will probably be a bust, ‘cause the way that things are going right now, we aren’t too close to finding anything here, either.” 

“Let’s hope not. We only have a bit of time left until they weaponize...whatever it is that they’re making.”

I looked over at her, and her eyebrows were scrunched together as she drove. She was thinking, hard. “Don’t sweat it. Even if they do, we still have the Avengers,” I reminded her. 

“Mostly. We have Steve, Bruce. A month or so ago, Tony had that thing with the Mandarin, so I don’t know how willing he would be to getting called in right now. And then there’s Thor, who’s off-planet.”

“The Mandarin really freaked me out,” I admitted. “Why didn’t they call you in for that?”

“I was assigned to another mission. It was also of high importance.” I didn’t say anything, not wanting to bug her about it, but she still continued. “Of course, there was no coverage of that on the news because I didn’t call international attention to it. There should have been, though. There was a mysterious organization with invisible people that could read minds and had infinite knowledge. I took it down.”

It sounded like bragging. I smiled. I guess this didn’t really count as confidential SHIELD information since it was a job that she had seen to completion. “How do you even take something like that down?” 

“It took me a while. I made a list of every member, focused on one at a time. So no, I wasn’t available to help with Tony’s problem, which he most likely caused himself somehow.”

I laughed. I heard about the Avengers on the news a lot, but it was odd to hear her speak about them like they were friends. To some extent, they probably were. “Wait, you said Dr. Banner, Thor, Captain Rogers, and Stark. I thought there were six?”

“Clint’s always available if I need him. He’s the one with the arrows,” she elaborated, assuming I did not recognize him based on first name. I did not. 

We did a few more laps, crossing into as many roads as possible. It became increasingly unclear why Jackson would pick this town up. I didn’t even know where someone would hide the base we were looking for. After a few moments of quiet, Romanoff abruptly skidded to a stop in the middle of the street. I jolted forward. 

“What—?!”

“There was a rabbit, I didn’t want to run it over,” she hurriedly explained. Leaning forward, I watched as it hopped across the road, onto the sidewalk. I couldn’t help but grin. 

“You’ve literally killed people,” I teased. “I didn’t know you were an animal person.”

“I wasn’t always, but my cat turned me soft.”

“You have a cat?”

“A black cat. His name is Liho. He’s still a kitten. He wouldn’t stop hanging out outside my window.”

“I thought black cats were bad luck.”

“Well, nothing terrible has happened to me yet, so I guess that’s fake.”

It wasn’t long before we gave up. It was clear there was nothing to uncover here. Just a regular, uneventful town. 

The drive back to the hotel was quiet, the sun beginning to set. The sun was bright orange, touching the horizon. We reached our room. “Want to watch TV?” I offered. 

“We won’t understand anything.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Want to go to the pool? I didn’t see anyone down there.”

“Sure!” I agreed. “That beats sitting up here and doing nothing for hours.”

We rode an elevator down to the first floor. She was wearing athletic shorts and a Bikini Kill T-shirt, and I wore an old Harvard shirt and shorts. There were a few kids splashing in the shallow end, giggling. On the deeper end, we each sat, dipping our feet in. 

I looked over at her while we sat quietly Her hair was tied back into a ponytail. I had never seen it up before. She had a nice side profile, a naturally pointed nose. Her features were so delicate. Her hand brushed against mine as she found a comfortable sitting position. 

“I forgot you went to Harvard. What did you do?” she asked. I snapped back to reality. 

“Biology. I wish I was a lab worker. That’s always been my dream.”

“Maybe someday.”

“Maybe.”

The pool was quieter now, as time passed and the children left with their parents. It was just us now. 

I looked down at our feet. Her toenails were painted all different colors. Bright green, bright pink, light orange, black, white, another pink, red. 

I should say something. It was so quiet. 

“I think I’m gonna get in,” she said. I looked up, meeting her eyes. 

“You’re not wearing a swimsuit.”

“I don’t care.”

Without hesitating, she slowly lifted herself into the water, and I continued to sit quietly, staring. She dunked her head under, pulling out her ponytail as she re-emerged. She shivered. 

“Come on!” 

I stared. Her clothes clung to her figure, soaking wet. Her hair was a little darker in the water, but it was still a deep, warm red. 

“Julie, come on in, don’t be a baby!”

She said my name so well. It sounded exactly right when it mixed with her voice. I didn’t care about being cold at all. I held my breath, sliding in beside her. 

The cold washed over my body harshly, and I shivered. "Ah!” I gasped. “Oh my god! Is it not heated?”

“It doesn’t feel like it. You haven’t even dipped your head under. That’s the worst part.”

“I don’t think I can.” I felt like I was thirteen. This was really immature. I didn’t care. 

“Come on, I’ll do it at the same time as you!”

“That’s not fair, it won’t be as bad for you, you already did it.”

“Hm. Maybe. On the count of three.”

“No!”

“One...two...Three!”

I gasped and held my breath, dipping under the water. She didn’t. I quickly broke the surface. “Natasha!” I cried, splashing her. She laughed. 

“Your hair looks good when it’s wet,” she complimented.

“Oh, thank you. Yours does too.”

We waded in the water, laughing and talking for a while to pass time. When it got too cold, we decided to go back upstairs. 

“I’ll order food,” she offered.

“Okay. I’m going to check on the boys.”

I had left my phone upstairs while we went swimming and I was greeted with many missed calls and texts from Antonio. Confused, I returned the call. 

“Julie!” he exclaimed. “It’s in Estonia!”

“Oh!” I was surprised, turning to Natahsa. She had heard. “I’m going to put you on speaker, okay?”

“Yeah, you both should hear this. We found the location. It’s huge. And Orion’s dead.”


End file.
